Research note. Open letter to the users of the new PubMed: a critical appraisal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.may.36Keywords:
PubMed, Information storage and retrieval, Search engines, Databases, Search algorithms, User-computer interface, Reproducibility of results.Abstract
PubMed is a free database used daily by about 2.5 million people to search and retrieve scientific documents related to Health Sciences. In May 2020, certain changes were made to its search algorithm, which at first sight improves the location of scientific articles, but upon analyzing its operation in more depth, we detected some changes that make the reproducibility of bibliographic searches difficult. In order to safeguard the reproducibility and replicability of the searches carried out for systematic reviews, narratives and meta-analyzes, we suggest accompanying these strategies with a file in a format compatible with reference managers, to facilitate comparison and verification of the strategy to be replicated in a future.
Downloads
References
Canese, Kathi; Chan, Jessica; Collins, Marie; Trawick, Bart; Weis, Sarah (2020). "The new and improved PubMed is here". NLM Technical bulletin. 2020 May 19. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj20/mj20_PubMed_new.html
Fiorini, Nicolas; Canese, Kathi; Bryzgunov, Rostyslav; Radetska, Ievgeniia; Gindulyte, Asta; Latterner, Martin; Miller, Vadim; Osipov, Maxim; Kholodov, Michael; Starchenko, Grisha; Kirreev, Evgeny; Lu, Zhiyong (2018a). "PubMed Labs: An Experimental system for improving biomedical literature search". Database (Oxford), v. 2018, bay094. https://doi.org/10.1093/database/bay094
Fiorini, Nicolas; Canese, Kathi; Starchenko, Grisha; Kireev, Evgeny; Kim, Won; Miller, Vadim; Osipov, Maxim; Kholodov, Michael; Ismagilov, Rafis; Mohan, Sunil; Ostell, James; Lu, Zhiyong. (2018b) "Best Match: New relevance search for PubMed". PLoS biology, v. 16, n. 8, pp. e2005343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005343
García-Puente, María (2020). Search results of the same search strategy perform in 2 different dates. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12546104.v1
Lee, Young-Ho (2018). "An overview of meta-analysis for clinicians". Korean journal of internal medicine, v. 33, n. 2, pp. 277-283. https://doi.org/10.3904/kjim.2016.195
Moher, David; Shamseer, Larissa; Clarke, Mike; Ghersi, Davina; Liberati, Alessandro; Petticrew, Mark; Shekelle, Paul; Stewart, Lesley A.; Prisma-P Group (2015). "Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (Prisma-P) 2015 statement". Systematic reviews, v. 4, n. 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-1
National Library of Medicine (2020a). Medline PubMed production statistics. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/medline_pubmed_production_stats.html
National Library of Medicine (2020b). Medline /PubMed data element (Field) descriptions. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/mms/medlineelements.html
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Dissemination conditions of the articles once they are published
Authors can freely disseminate their articles on websites, social networks and repositories
However, the following conditions must be respected:
- Only the editorial version should be made public. Please do not publish preprints, postprints or proofs.
- Along with this copy, a specific mention of the publication in which the text has appeared must be included, also adding a clickable link to the URL: http://www.profesionaldelainformacion.com
- Only the final editorial version should be made public. Please do not publish preprints, postprints or proofs.
- Along with that copy, a specific mention of the publication in which the text has appeared must be included, also adding a clickable link to the URL: http://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com
Profesional de la información journal offers the articles in open access with a Creative Commons BY license.