Use of the capture-recapture technique to evaluate the completeness of systematic literature searches

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Abstract
Capture-recapture methods were pioneered in ecology and derive their name from censuses of wildlife in which several animals are captured, marked, released, and subject to recapture. In epidemiology the technique examines the degree of overlap between two (or more) methods of ascertainment and uses a simple formula to estimate the total size of the population. When the number already identified is subtracted from this estimate the number of cases not ascertained by either (or any) of the methods can then be calculated. It has been suggested that studies which attempt to ascertain all cases of a given disease in a population should use this method to estimate the number of missing cases.1 2 There are direct parallels between epidemiological studies which attempt to ascertain all available cases and systematic literature …