Table 7.

Best combination of terms for optimising the trade-off between sensitivity and specificity in Medline when adding the boolean AND NOT

Search strategy using Ovid format	Sensitivity (%) (95% CI)	Specificity (%) (95% CI)	Precision (%) (95% CI)	Accuracy (%) (95% CI)
Randomized controlled trial.pt. OR randomized.mp. OR placebo.mp. AND NOT (review tutorial.pt. OR search.tw. OR review academic.pt. OR selection criteri:.tw.)	95.8 (94.5 to 97.1)	96.1 (95.8 to 96.3)	44.4 (42.1 to 46.4)	96.0 (95.8 to 96.3)

pt=publication type; mp=multiple posting (term appears in title, abstract, or MeSH heading); pt=publication type; :=truncation; tw=textword (word or phrase appears in title or abstract); :=truncation.