title: The contribution of handsearching European general health care journals to the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register.
abstract: A fundamental aim of any systematic review is that all relevant studies should be identified and considered for inclusion. Limitations with searching bibliographic databases led the Cochrane Collaboration to search journals by hand for reports of trials. This article presents the results of a 3-year project to identify and make accessible reports of randomized trials published in European general health care journals. Overall, 21,620 reports of controlled trials were identified from 119 journals from 16 countries. More than three quarters (76%) were published in U.K. or German journals. Only 3,640 (17%) reports were indexed in MEDLINE as controlled trials, and 6,554 (30%) were not indexed in MEDLINE at all. Bibliographic details for all reports are available by searching The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register in The Cochrane Library. This project has ensured that a large proportion of trial reports not previously identifiable has been made accessible to those preparing systematic reviews.
authors.affiliation: U.K. Cochrane Centre.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lefebvre
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Antes
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Galandi
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gøtzsche
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammarquist
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haugh
authors.forename: Kirsten Lone
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kleijnen
authors.forename: Marjan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loep
authors.forename: Vanna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pistotti
authors.forename: Alric
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rüther
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D005060:Europe; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D007391:International Cooperation; D016239:MEDLINE; D009939:Organizations, Nonprofit; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic