title: ITERATIVE SIFTING IN THE SELECTION OF RESEARCH EVIDENCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR REVIEWS AND OTHER DECISION PROBLEMS.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A rapid scoping review was performed to support the development of a new clinical technology platform. An iterative sifting approach was adopted to address the challenges posed by the nature of the review question and the extremely large volume of search results to be sifted within the timescales of the review.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study describes the iterative sifting approach applied in the scoping review and a preliminary validation of the methods applied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The searches performed for the rapid scoping review retrieved 27,198 records. This was the full set of records subjected to the staged, iterative sifting approach and the subsequent validation process. The iterative sifting approach involved the screening for relevance of 17,354 (i.e., 63.8 percent) of the 27,198 records. A list of fifty-three potential biomarker names was generated as a result of this iterative sifting method, of which nineteen were selected by clinical specialists for further scrutiny. The preliminary validation involved the exhaustive sifting of the remaining 9,844 previously unsifted records. The validation process identified sixteen additional potential biomarker names not identified by the iterative sifting process. The clinical specialists subsequently concluded that none were of further clinical interest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study describes an approach to the screening of search records that can be successfully applied in appropriate review and decision problems to allow the prioritization of the most relevant search records and achieve time savings. Following further refinement and standardization, this iterative sifting method may have potential for further applications in reviews and other decision problems.
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Related Research,University of Sheffieldr.archer@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Archer
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Related Research,University of Sheffield.
authors.forename: Suzy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paisley
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Related Research,University of Sheffield.
authors.forename: Munira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Essat
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Related Research,University of Sheffield.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Preston
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Oral & Maxillofacial Medicine & Surgery,School of Clinical Dentistry,University of Sheffield.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thornhill
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D057386:Search Engine / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Identification of evidence; Study selection; Systematic review