Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Methodological Issues with Search in MEDLINE: A Longitudinal Query Analysis

View ORCID ProfileC. Sean Burns, View ORCID ProfileTyler Nix, Robert M. Shapiro II, Jeffrey T. Huber
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.110403
C. Sean Burns
1University of Kentucky, School of Information Science
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for C. Sean Burns
  • For correspondence: sean.burns@uky.edu
Tyler Nix
2Taubman Health Sciences Library, University of Michigan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Tyler Nix
Robert M. Shapiro II
1University of Kentucky, School of Information Science
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jeffrey T. Huber
1University of Kentucky, School of Information Science
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

This study compares the results of data collected from a longitudinal query analysis of the MEDLINE database hosted on multiple platforms that include PubMed, EBSCOHost, Ovid, ProQuest, and Web of Science in order to identify variations among the search results on the platforms after controlling for search query syntax. We devised twenty-nine sets of search queries comprised of five queries per set to search against the five MEDLINE database platforms. We ran our queries monthly for a year and collected search result count data to observe changes. We found that search results vary considerably depending on MEDLINE platform, both within sets and across time. The variation is due to trends in scholarly publication that include publishing online first versus publishing in journal issues, which leads to metadata differences in the bibliographic record; to differences in the level of specificity among search fields provided by the platforms; to database integrity issues that lead to large fluctuations in monthly search results based on the same query; and to database currency issues that arise due to when each platform updates its MEDLINE file. Specific bibliographic databases, like PubMed and MEDLINE, are used to inform clinical decision-making, create systematic reviews, and construct knowledge bases for clinical decision support systems. Since they serve as essential information retrieval and discovery tools that help identify and collect research data and are used in a broad range of fields and as the basis of multiple research designs, this study should help clinicians, researcher, librarians, informationalists, and others understand how these platforms differ and inform future work in their standardization.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted May 22, 2020.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Methodological Issues with Search in MEDLINE: A Longitudinal Query Analysis
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Methodological Issues with Search in MEDLINE: A Longitudinal Query Analysis
C. Sean Burns, Tyler Nix, Robert M. Shapiro II, Jeffrey T. Huber
bioRxiv 2020.05.22.110403; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.110403
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Methodological Issues with Search in MEDLINE: A Longitudinal Query Analysis
C. Sean Burns, Tyler Nix, Robert M. Shapiro II, Jeffrey T. Huber
bioRxiv 2020.05.22.110403; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.110403

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Bioinformatics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4657)
  • Biochemistry (10309)
  • Bioengineering (7629)
  • Bioinformatics (26217)
  • Biophysics (13462)
  • Cancer Biology (10637)
  • Cell Biology (15354)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8461)
  • Ecology (12766)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16781)
  • Genetics (11368)
  • Genomics (15416)
  • Immunology (10562)
  • Microbiology (25064)
  • Molecular Biology (10165)
  • Neuroscience (54203)
  • Paleontology (398)
  • Pathology (1658)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2878)
  • Physiology (4319)
  • Plant Biology (9206)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1582)
  • Synthetic Biology (2543)
  • Systems Biology (6759)
  • Zoology (1454)