Keeping up to date with information retrieval research: Summarized Research in Information Retrieval for HTA (SuRe Info)
Chalon PX , Ormstad SS, Isojärvi J, Arber M, Droste S, Duffy S, Glanville J, Golder S, Kaunelis D, Lefebvre C et al. 2014. Keeping up to date with information retrieval research: Summarized Research in Information Retrieval for HTA (SuRe Info). 14th EAHIL Conference "Divided We Fall, United We Inform - Building Alliances For A New European Cooperation". [Oral Presentation]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Increasing numbers of research papers about information retrieval for health technology assessments, systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses are being published. To meet the challenge of keeping up-to-date, the Interest Sub-Group on Information Resources of the Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi IRG) organization has launched a web resource entitled Summarized Research in Information Retrieval for HTA (SuRe Info). The main target groups for thisresource are information specialists and others who conduct searches to inform evidence syntheses.
AIM: To present the SuRe Info methodology and output.
METHODS: A methodology has been elaborated to identify, appraise and summarise the relevant literature. Appraisals and chapters are produced by an international project group who shares preparatory documents through free cloud services (Box, Zotero). The web resource is updated every six months and published as a specific section of the HTAi Vortal.
RESULTS: Information retrieval methods publications are identified by running topic-specific search strategies in selected relevant databases. Alerts are set up for the prospective identification of publications. Publications fulfilling the SuRe Info inclusion criteria are included in the web resource as structured abstracts with brief critical appraisals. Abstracts are tagged with keywords. The appraisals are then synthesized into topic specific chapters organised in two sections: 1) chapters on general search methods common across all health technologies and 2) chapters describing the methods to use when searching for specific aspects of health technologies. The latter chapters are mainly based on the structure of the HTA Core Model® developed by EUnetHTA.
28 appraisals had been published by January 2014. Six chapters are available summarizing the current research findings concerning a particular aspect of information retrieval. Each chapter has an Introduction, a list of sources to search, information on designing search strategies and a list of references. Each reference is followed by links to 1) the full reference that can be exported; 2) the structured appraisal, written by SuRe Info project group members; and 3) where possible, the full-text. Several new chapters are in preparation and the aim is to publish all chapters by the middle of 2015.
CONCLUSION: SuRe Info is a new open-access web resource that provides research-based information relating to the information retrieval aspects of producing health technology assessments and systematic reviews. It seeks to help information specialists to stay up-to-date in the latest developments in this field and to support research-based information retrieval practice.