title: Efficiency of automated literature search mechanisms.
abstract: This article explores the efficiency of automated literature search techniques to facilitate literature accessibility. It presents three related studies using the National Library of Medicine ( NLM ) literature search on nurse practitioners (1980) as the point of reference. The studies investigate three questions: Is the search reproducible, does it locate the most important articles pertaining to nurse practitioner effectiveness, and can a system be developed to decide efficiently which articles in a voluminous search output should actually be obtained? Results indicate that the NLM search is reproducible but that it lists only a small proportion of available studies. Neither the NLM document nor a computer search using the parameters it cites located a high proportion of critically nominated studies. However, based upon classification of their titles, a workable system can be developed to identify those articles in a search output that are relevant and should be retrieved.
mesh_terms: D001634:Bibliographies as Topic; D004526:Efficiency; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems / Q000592:standards*; D008523:MEDLARS; D009317:National Library of Medicine (U.S.); D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D010823:Physician Assistants; D013358:Subject Headings; D014481:United States