Search process for guidelines

The following details the steps to be taken for the drafting and delivery of literature searches. The sequential steps will take, at minimum, three days to complete entirely, with a realistic expectation of five to seven days to complete without delays in communication.
Dividing the scope of the review to manageable proportions	We will draft a single, large literature search to identify all potentially relevant papers to the entire guideline. If there are greater than 5000 citations from all the databases, we will subdivide the search strategy into several smaller strategies such as screening, diagnosis, treatment, etc. Alternatively, the search could be divided into up to 10 specific questions (eg, barium for dysphagia diagnosis)
Determining what needs to be searched	We will liaise with a selected person from the guideline development team to determine what specific terms should be included in the search. For example, you may decide it is unnecessary to search definitions if you have already established that a standard one will be used (eg, Rome III for functional dyspepsia)
Defining the type of evidence to be sought	The guideline development group will provide guidance on the type of papers to be sought (ie, primary studies, editorials, letters)
The iterative nature of the search process	The search strategy will be drafted and the terms agreed with the contact person from the guideline development team. This part of the search process usually involves testing terms to examine their effects on the search results. Several communications between the searcher and guideline contact person will likely be required
Confirming resources to be searched	We will run literature searches on Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Clinical trials databases. We would not normally search the grey literature. The guideline development group should inform us whether additional databases need to be searched
Delivery of search results	We will edit the search results to remove duplicate citations, and any in vitro or vivo (animal) studies. We will download the subject headings associated with each citation for inclusion in the Reference Manager database to facilitate searching. The results of the literature searches will be collated and e-mailed to the guideline group as either a Word document or a text file compatible with a Bibliographic Management software format (eg, Reference Manager, Endnote) for importing, or both
Selecting papers	We will select and include only studies relevant to the guideline topic. If requested, results will be divided into subgroups (eg, studies of adults, children and mixed groups) It is the responsibility of the guideline development group to add the appropriate paper to the appropriate statement within the guideline
Document delivery	The guideline group is responsible for obtaining copies of papers. However, we are happy to attempt to obtain any papers that may be difficult to find