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. 2024 Jan 16;112(1):33-41.
doi: 10.5195/jmla.2024.1742.

Validation of an interprofessional education search strategy in PubMed to optimize IPE literature searching

Rebecca Carlson  1 , Sophie Nachman  2 , Lisa de Saxe Zerden  3 , Nandita Mani  4
Affiliations

Validation of an interprofessional education search strategy in PubMed to optimize IPE literature searching

Rebecca Carlson et al. J Med Libr Assoc. .

Abstract

Objective: With exponential growth in the publication of interprofessional education (IPE) research studies, it has become more difficult to find relevant literature and stay abreast of the latest research. To address this gap, we developed, evaluated, and validated search strategies for IPE studies in PubMed, to improve future access to and synthesis of IPE research. These search strategies, or search hedges, provide comprehensive, validated sets of search terms for IPE publications.

Methods: The search strategies were created for PubMed using relative recall methodology. The research methods followed the guidance of previous search hedge and search filter validation studies in creating a gold standard set of relevant references using systematic reviews, having expert searchers identify and test search terms, and using relative recall calculations to validate the searches' performance against the gold standard set.

Results: The three recommended search hedges for IPE studies presented had recall of 71.5%, 82.7%, and 95.1%; the first more focused for efficient literature searching, the last with high recall for comprehensive literature searching, and the remaining hedge as a middle ground between the other two options.

Conclusion: These validated search hedges can be used in PubMed to expedite finding relevant scholarships, staying up to date with IPE research, and conducting literature reviews and evidence syntheses.

Keywords: Interprofessional education; relative recall; search hedge validation; systematic reviews as topic.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram [24]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Search hedges and recall
Figure 3
Figure 3
Frequency of individual terms
Figure 4
Figure 4
Recall of individual terms
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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