Abstract
Objective:This study compared the recall and precision of MeSH-term versus text-word searching to better understand psychosocial MeSH terms and to provide guidance on whether to include both strategies in an information literacy session or how much time should be spent on teaching each search strategy.Methods:Using the relevant recall method, a total of 3,162 resources were considered and evaluated to form a gold standard set of 1,521 relevant resources. We compared resources discussing psychosocial aspects of children and adolescents living with type 1 diabetes using two search strategies: text-word strategy versus MeSH-term strategy. The frequency of MeSH terms, the MeSH hierarchy, and elements of each search strategy were also examined.Results:Using the 1,521 relevant articles, we found that the text-word search strategy had 54% recall, while the MeSH-term strategy had 75% recall. Also, the precision of the text-word strategy was 34.4%, while the precision of the MeSH-term strategy was 47.7%. Therefore, the MeSH-term search strategy yielded both greater recall and greater precision. The MeSH strategy was also more complicated in design and usage than the text-word strategy.Conclusions:This study demonstrates the effectiveness of text-word and MeSH search strategies on precision and recall. The combination of text-word and MeSH strategies is recommended to achieve the most comprehensive results. These results support the idea that MeSH or a similar controlled vocabulary should be taught to experienced and knowledgeable students and practitioners who require a myriad of resources for their literature searches.
Highlights
Health librarians, and students alike, conducting effective and efficient literature searches is an important part of evidence-based medicine (EBM)
We reviewed Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms assigned to these articles to determine whether we needed to expand the number of psychosocial MeSH terms beyond the 23 terms used in our Boolean search
Using the 1,521 relevant articles and dissertations as the denominator for the recall formula used by Ting [40], we found that the text-word search strategy had 54% recall (822 retrieved/1,521 relevant sources), while the MeSHterm strategy had 75% recall (1,139 retrieved/1,521 relevant sources)
Summary
Health librarians, and students alike, conducting effective and efficient literature searches is an important part of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Sackett, who is considered one of the pioneers of evidence-based medicine, defines EBM as “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients” [1]. It is this desire to effectively and safely treat patients, using well-documented methods, that has health practitioners and health students in a continuous search for the best evidence and most relevant literature. EBM recommends consulting articles on randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews This need for specific types of literature can influence a search strategy and adds to the skills needed to accomplish a successful search.
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