Finding knowledge translation articles in CINAHL.
BACKGROUND
The process of moving research into practice has a number of names including knowledge translation (KT). Researchers and decision makers need to be able to readily access the literature on KT for the field to grow and to evaluate the existing evidence.


METHODS
To develop and validate search filters for finding KT articles in the database Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL). A gold standard database was constructed by hand searching and classifying articles from 12 journals as KT Content, KT Applications and KT Theory.


METHODS
Sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy of the search filters.


RESULTS
Optimized search filters had fairly low sensitivity and specificity for KT Content (58.4% and 64.9% respectively), while sensitivity and specificity increased for retrieving KT Application (67.5% and 70.2%) and KT Theory articles (70.4% and 77.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
Search filter performance was suboptimal marking the broad base of disciplines and vocabularies used by KT researchers. Such diversity makes retrieval of KT studies in CINAHL difficult.
Lokker
Cynthia
C
Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. lokkerc@mcmaster.ca
McKibbon
K Ann
KA
Wilczynski
Nancy L
NL
Haynes
R Brian
RB
Ciliska
Donna
D
Dobbins
Maureen
M
Davis
David A
DA
Straus
Sharon E
SE
D016208:Databases, Factual; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D019359:Knowledge; D009729:Nursing; D009732:Nursing Care; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity