Comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar literature searches
- PMID: 20420728
Comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar literature searches
Abstract
Background: Literature searches are essential to evidence-based respiratory care. To conduct literature searches, respiratory therapists rely on search engines to retrieve information, but there is a dearth of literature on the comparative efficiencies of search engines for researching clinical questions in respiratory care.
Objective: To compare PubMed and Google Scholar search results for clinical topics in respiratory care to that of a benchmark.
Methods: We performed literature searches with PubMed and Google Scholar, on 3 clinical topics. In PubMed we used the Clinical Queries search filter. In Google Scholar we used the search filters in the Advanced Scholar Search option. We used the reference list of a related Cochrane Collaboration evidence-based systematic review as the benchmark for each of the search results. We calculated recall (sensitivity) and precision (positive predictive value) with 2 x 2 contingency tables. We compared the results with the chi-square test of independence and Fisher's exact test.
Results: PubMed and Google Scholar had similar recall for both overall search results (71% vs 69%) and full-text results (43% vs 51%). PubMed had better precision than Google Scholar for both overall search results (13% vs 0.07%, P < .001) and full-text results (8% vs 0.05%, P < .001).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that PubMed searches with the Clinical Queries filter are more precise than with the Advanced Scholar Search in Google Scholar for respiratory care topics. PubMed appears to be more practical to conduct efficient, valid searches for informing evidence-based patient-care protocols, for guiding the care of individual patients, and for educational purposes.
Similar articles
-
Google Scholar versus PubMed in locating primary literature to answer drug-related questions.Ann Pharmacother. 2009 Mar;43(3):478-84. doi: 10.1345/aph.1L223. Epub 2009 Mar 3. Ann Pharmacother. 2009. PMID: 19261965
-
Developing search strategies for clinical practice guidelines in SUMSearch and Google Scholar and assessing their retrieval performance.BMC Med Res Methodol. 2007 Jun 30;7:28. doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-7-28. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2007. PMID: 17603909 Free PMC article.
-
Medical literature searches: a comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar.Health Info Libr J. 2012 Sep;29(3):214-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2012.00992.x. Epub 2012 Jun 19. Health Info Libr J. 2012. PMID: 22925384
-
Medical literature search dot com.Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol. 2011 Mar-Apr;77(2):135-40. doi: 10.4103/0378-6323.77451. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol. 2011. PMID: 21393941 Review.
-
An Improved Forensic Science Information Search.Forensic Sci Rev. 2015 Jan;27(1):41-52. Forensic Sci Rev. 2015. PMID: 26227137 Review.
Cited by
-
Increasing utilization of Internet-based resources following efforts to promote evidence-based medicine: a national study in Taiwan.BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2013 Jan 7;13:4. doi: 10.1186/1472-6947-13-4. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2013. PMID: 23289500 Free PMC article.
-
Assessing the full costs of floodplain buyouts.Clim Change. 2021;168(1-2):3. doi: 10.1007/s10584-021-03178-x. Epub 2021 Sep 14. Clim Change. 2021. PMID: 34538989 Free PMC article.
-
Google Scholar is not enough to be used alone for systematic reviews.Online J Public Health Inform. 2013 Jul 1;5(2):214. doi: 10.5210/ojphi.v5i2.4623. Print 2013. Online J Public Health Inform. 2013. PMID: 23923099 Free PMC article.
-
The Google+ Project and neurosciences: Will it be as supercalifragilistic-expialidocious as expected?J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2011 Jul;2(2):211-2. doi: 10.4103/0976-3147.83607. J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2011. PMID: 21897704 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
-
Use of Artificial Intelligence for Medical Literature Search: Randomized Controlled Trial Using the Hackathon Format.Interact J Med Res. 2020 Mar 30;9(1):e16606. doi: 10.2196/16606. Interact J Med Res. 2020. PMID: 32224481 Free PMC article.