The complexity of searching the literature.
The science of systematically reviewing literature has become a research process in its own right. The key word of course, is systematic. In the context of a systematic review this indicates that all possible sources have been comprehensively searched using a pre-defined search strategy designed to identify all relevant published and unpublished work. This paper illustrates the components of a comprehensive search, examines the yield of this approach and discusses the time and resource requirements for conducting the search. It uses as an example a recently completed systematic review. The paper goes on to discuss ways in which nurses can become more involved in conducting and using the results of good quality reviews.
Sindhu
F
F
National Audit Office, London, United Kingdom.
Dickson
R
R
D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods*; D009862:Online Systems; D012196:Review Literature as Topic