A simple hint to improve Robinson and Dickersin's highly sensitive PubMed search strategy for controlled clinical trials

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Abstract
Systematic literature searches are of paramount importance for investigators involved in clinical research as well as for those overviewing clinical evidence.1 While several electronic databases are available to search for controlled clinical studies, PubMed, the online version of the US National Library of Medicine MEDLINE database, is probably one of the most complete and user-friendly.2 Nonetheless, significant expertise is needed to tackle the vast amount of information available in PubMed. Among other useful tools, explicit search strategies using Boolean operators, Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms and keywords have been proposed to improve the sensitivity and specificity of PubMed searches for clinical trials.3 One of the most sensitive as well as specific of such systematic search algorithms is the strategy originally proposed by Robinson and Dickersin in 2002, which has been adopted by several Cochrane Collaboration reviewers.4 However, even this well-tested strategy may lack optimal specificity, as many initially retrieved citations, often in the order of hundreds, eventually end up being non-pertinent or duplicate hits. Unfortunately, it is well known that the number of initial reports is one of the key factors determining length, complexity, and economic burden of a systematic review. Moreover, readers and reviewers of biomedical literature always hope to reduce the number-needed-to-read in order to pursue their scholarly projects or continuing medical education.5

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