Letter in response to Thompson and Scott Authors ’ letter reestablished search filters may miss studies when identifying randomized controlled trials. Language for trial phase necessary when searching for RCT

Thompson and Scott suggest including “additional search filters which are more frequently utilized in systematic reviews” in our case study [1]; we question if it is possible to determine which of the many search filters available for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the most frequently used in systematic reviews. It is not mandatory to reference search filters, so we cannot use citation count as an imperfect proxy, and we are not aware of any evidence which ranks search filters according to use.

Source: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology - September 11, 2019 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Chris Cooper, David Kaunelis, Jo Varley Campbell, Patrice Carter Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research