Filtering failure: the impact of automated indexing in Medline on retrieval of human studies for knowledge synthesis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Use of the search filter 'exp animals/not humans.sh' is a well-established method in evidence synthesis to exclude non-human studies. However, the shift to automated indexing of Medline records has raised concerns about the use of subject-heading-based search techniques. We sought to determine how often this string inappropriately excludes human studies among automated as compared to manually indexed records in Ovid Medline.

Methods

We searched Ovid Medline for studies published in 2021 and 2022 using the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy for randomized trials. We identified all results excluded by the non-human-studies filter. Records were divided into sets based on indexing method: automated, curated, or manual. Each set was screened to identify human stu

SUBMITTER: Askin N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11835038 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature