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Table 1 Distribution of included studies across search source groups

From: The selection of search sources influences the findings of a systematic review of people’s views: a case study in public health

Search source type and stage of searching in protocol Search sources Included on full-text (N = 28)* Studies only found within this group of sources (% of 28 studies)
Bibliographic database search sources in original search protocol Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA); Bibliomap; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL); Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); HealthPromis; PsycINFO; PubMed; Social Sciences Citation Index(SSCI); Dissertation Abstracts; 16 (57%) 9 (32%)
Search engines in original search protocol Google and Scirus 3 (11%) 1 (3.5%)
Non-database sources in original protocol Author contact; forward citation checking (Web of Knowledge); reference list checking; previous EPPI-Centre review; 16 websites; handsearches of 3 journals 8 (29%) 6 (21%)
Supplementary search sources British Education Index; Child data; IBSS, Index of British Theses; Social Care Online; (The British Library Integrated Catalogue and Zetoc were also searched but did not yield additional studies) 10 (36%) 5 (18%)
  1. *total exceeds 28 as some included studies were identified in multiple categories.
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BMC Medical Research Methodology

ISSN: 1471-2288

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