Collaborating to plan efficient public health guideline evidence reviews understanding which sources retrieve evidence

Abstract

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produces public health guidelines. Information specialists collaborate with technical analysts to perform systematic searches for evidence reviews (ERs). Public health ERs require searches from multiple disciplines across a range of sources leading to high volumes of results. The purpose of the project was to provide evidence to support the choice of sources for new topics. It aimed to retrospectively analyse a sample of NICE public health ERs by examining which sources retrieved publications. Medical databases found the highest proportion of publications, but smaller subject focussed databases and search techniques also contributed. These findings justify use of a range of sources for public health reviews and help the planning of ERs.