Which are the most sensitive search filters to identify randomized controlled trials in MEDLINE?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews contains search filters to find randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in Ovid MEDLINE: one maximizing sensitivity and another balancing sensitivity and precision. These filters were originally published in 1994 and were adapted and updated in 2008. To determine the performance of these filters, the authors tested them and thirty-six other MEDLINE filters against a large new gold standard set of relevant records.

Methods

We identified a gold standard set of RCT reports published in 2016 from the Cochrane CENTRAL database of controlled clinical trials. We retrieved the records in Ovid MEDLINE and combined these with each RCT filter. We calculated their sensitivity, relative precision, and f-scores.

Results

The gold sta

SUBMITTER: Glanville J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7524635 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature