title: An efficient strategy allowed English-speaking reviewers to identify foreign-language articles eligible for a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess English-speaking reviewers' accuracy in determining the eligibility of foreign-language articles for a systematic review.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic review of randomized controlled trials of therapy for fibromyalgia. Guided by 10 questions, English-speaking reviewers screened non-English-language articles for eligibility. Teams of two native-language speakers provided reference standard judgments of eligibility.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 15,466 potentially eligible articles, we retrieved 763 in full text, of which 133 were published in 19 non-English languages; 53 trials published in 11 languages other than English proved eligible. Of the 53 eligible articles, English-language reviewers guided by the 10 questions mistakenly judged 6 as ineligible; of the 80 ineligible articles, 8 were incorrectly judged eligible by English-language reviewers (sensitivity=0.89; specificity=0.90). Use of a simple three-step rule (excluding languages with less than three articles, reviewing titles and abstracts for clear indications of eligibility, and noting the lack of a clearly reported statistical analysis unless the word "random" appears) led to accurate classification of 51 of 53 articles (sensitivity=0.96; specificity=0.70).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings show promise for limiting the need for non-English-language review teams in systematic reviews with large numbers of potentially eligible non-English-language articles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University, HSC-2U1, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; The Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care, McMaster University, MDCL 2101, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1. Electronic address: bussejw@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: Jason W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Busse
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Pkwy, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.affiliation: School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, 1400 Main St. W., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 1C7.
authors.forename: Keshena
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3J1.
authors.forename: Gaelan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Connell
authors.affiliation: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3J1.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Torrance
authors.affiliation: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3J1.
authors.forename: Trung
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.affiliation: German Hospital, 1640 Pueyrredón, C1118 AAT, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kirmayr
authors.affiliation: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3J1.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Avrahami
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, The Atrium at McMaster Innovation Park, 175 Longwood Road South, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8P 0A1.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University, HSC-2U1, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, 1265 Welch Road, Stanford, California, USA 94305; Department of Anaesthesia & Pain Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X8.
authors.forename: Shanil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ebrahim
authors.affiliation: Department of orthopaedic surgery, Academic Medical Center, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter A A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Struijs
authors.affiliation: Ontario Chiropractic Association, 20 Victoria St., Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 2N8.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brunarski
authors.affiliation: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3J1.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Burnie
authors.affiliation: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2H 3J1; Canadian Chiropractic Association, 186 Spadina Avenue, Suite 6, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 3B2.
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: LeBlanc
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, 1 King's College Circle Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8.
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Coomes
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Work & Health, 8th floor, 481 University Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 2E9; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 6th floor, 155 College St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 3M7.
authors.forename: Ivan A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Steenstra
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Work & Health, 8th floor, 481 University Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 2E9.
authors.forename: Tesha
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Slack
authors.affiliation: Restorative Health, 12 William St W, Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada K7A 1M9.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodine
authors.affiliation: Jointworks Chiropractic Inc., 3860 Main St, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5V 3N9.
authors.forename: Janey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jim
authors.affiliation: Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Plummer 3-35, Rochester, MN, USA 55905.
authors.forename: Victor M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Montori
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University, HSC-2U1, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1.
authors.forename: Gordon H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Guyatt
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000628:therapy; D007802:Language; D017594:Publication Bias; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic
keywords: Bias; English-language bias; Fibromyalgia; Language of publication; Methodology; Systematic review