title: Title and Abstract Screening and Evaluation in Systematic Reviews (TASER): a pilot randomised controlled trial of title and abstract screening by medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The production of high quality systematic reviews requires rigorous methods that are time-consuming and resource intensive. Citation screening is a key step in the systematic review process. An opportunity to improve the efficiency of systematic review production involves the use of non-expert groups and new technologies for citation screening. We performed a pilot study of citation screening by medical students using four screening methods and compared students' performance to experienced review authors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The aims of this pilot randomised controlled trial were to provide preliminary data on the accuracy of title and abstract screening by medical students, and on the effect of screening modality on screening accuracy and efficiency. Medical students were randomly allocated to title and abstract screening using one of the four modalities and required to screen 650 citations from a single systematic review update. The four screening modalities were a reference management software program (EndNote), Paper, a web-based systematic review workflow platform (ReGroup) and a mobile screening application (Screen2Go). Screening sensitivity and specificity were analysed in a complete case analysis using a chi-squared test and Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test according to screening modality and compared to a final set of included citations selected by expert review authors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivity of medical students' screening decisions ranged from 46.7% to 66.7%, with students using the web-based platform performing significantly better than the paper-based group. Specificity ranged from 93.2% to 97.4% with the lowest specificity seen with the web-based platform. There was no significant difference in performance between the other three modalities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical students are a feasible population to engage in citation screening. Future studies should investigate the effect of incentive systems, training and support and analytical methods on screening performance.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Cochrane Database CD001048.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pitt
authors.forename: Kit
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huckvale
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Clavisi
authors.forename: Tari
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gruen
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, 2nd Floor, Burnet Tower, Alfred Hospital, Commercial Road, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia. julian.elliott@alfred.org.au.
authors.forename: Julian H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003628:Database Management Systems; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D007254:Information Science / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D007600:Judgment; D063731:Mobile Applications; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013337:Students, Medical; D013996:Time and Motion Studies