Performance of a mixed filter to identify relevant studies for mixed studies reviews.

OBJECTIVE Mixed studies reviews include empirical studies with diverse designs. Given that identifying relevant studies for such reviews is time consuming, a mixed filter was developed. METHODS The filter was used for six journals from three disciplines. For each journal, database records were coded "empirical" (relevant) when they mentioned a research question or objective, data collection, analysis, and results. We measured precision (proportion of retrieved documents being relevant), sensitivity (proportion of relevant documents retrieved), and specificity (proportion of nonrelevant documents not retrieved). RESULTS Records were coded with and without the filter, and descriptive statistics were performed, suggesting the mixed filter has high sensitivity.

[1]  Michele Tarsilla.  Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions , 2010, Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation.

[2]  Bo-Christer Björk,et al.  Scientific journal publishing: yearly volume and open access availability , 2009, Inf. Res..

[3]  Patrick Onghena,et al.  Critical Appraisal of Mixed Methods Studies , 2013 .

[4]  M. Grant.  How does your searching grow? A survey of search preferences and the use of optimal search strategies in the identification of qualitative research. , 2004, Health information and libraries journal.

[5]  William R. Hersh,et al.  Information Retrieval: A Health and Biomedical Perspective , 2002 .

[6]  Christine Nadel,et al.  Case Study Research Design And Methods , 2016 .

[7]  R. Brian Haynes,et al.  Developing Optimal Search Strategies for Detecting Clinically Sound Causation Studies in MEDLINE , 2003, AMIA.

[8]  M. Sandelowski,et al.  Defining and Designing Mixed Research Synthesis Studies. , 2006, Research in the schools : a nationally refereed journal sponsored by the Mid-South Educational Research Association and the University of Alabama.

[9]  R Brian Haynes,et al.  BMC Medicine BioMed Central , 2003 .

[10]  Peder Olesen Larsen,et al.  The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index , 2010, Scientometrics.

[11]  Arif E. Jinha.  Article 50 million: an estimate of the number of scholarly articles in existence , 2010, Learn. Publ..

[12]  J. Popay,et al.  Systematically reviewing qualitative and quantitative evidence to inform management and policy-making in the health field , 2005, Journal of health services research & policy.

[13]  D. Gough,et al.  An Introduction to Systematic Reviews , 2017 .

[14]  Claire Bombardier,et al.  2009 Updated Method Guidelines for Systematic Reviews in the Cochrane Back Review Group , 2009, Spine.

[15]  A. Bryman.  Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: how is it done? , 2006 .

[16]  R Brian Haynes,et al.  A cross-sectional study of the number and frequency of terms used to refer to knowledge translation in a body of health literature in 2006: a Tower of Babel? , 2010, Implementation science : IS.

[17]  David R. Jones,et al.  Synthesising qualitative and quantitative evidence: A review of possible methods , 2005 .

[18]  A. Tricco,et al.  What is the most appropriate knowledge synthesis method to conduct a review? Protocol for a scoping review , 2012, BMC Medical Research Methodology.

[19]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research , 2006 .

[20]  Emma Irvin,et al.  Limited search strategies were effective in finding relevant nonrandomized studies. , 2006, Journal of clinical epidemiology.

[21]  Pierre Pluye,et al.  Combining the power of stories and the power of numbers: mixed methods research and mixed studies reviews. , 2014, Annual review of public health.

[22]  P. Flowers,et al.  Expanding the evidence within evidence-based healthcare: thinking about the context, acceptability and feasibility of interventions , 2014, Evidence-Based Medicine.

[23]  M. Patton,et al.  Qualitative evaluation and research methods , 1992 .

[24]  Karen A Robinson,et al.  Development of a highly sensitive search strategy for the retrieval of reports of controlled trials using PubMed. , 2002, International journal of epidemiology.

[25]  J. Glanville,et al.  Searching for Studies , 2008 .