Background: To date, Cochrane has focused primarily on publishing systematic reviews of the effectiveness of healthcare interventions and subsequently reviews of diagnostic test accuracy. How to identify studies in these areas is well-described in The Cochrane Handbooks. Cochrane is considering extending its remit to evidence syntheses in other areas, such as economic evaluations, prognosis and qualitative research. Study identification has not yet received as much attention in these areas within Cochrane. Additionally, under MECIR (Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews), if a Cochrane Review has specific eligibility criteria around study design to address adverse effects, economic issues or qualitative research questions, it is now mandatory that searches must be undertaken to address these issues. These areas, together with others, are covered in a new web resource, SuRe Info, produced by the Interest Sub-Group on Information Resources (IRG) of Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi). Objective: To present the SuRe Info resource. Methods: Information retrieval methods publications are identified by database searching. Publications meeting the SuRe Info inclusion criteria receive a structured abstract containing a brief critical appraisal prepared by one SuRe Info information specialist and checked by another. Key messages from the appraisals are summarized into topic-specific chapters. Results: SuRe Info is published as a section of the HTAi Vortal (www.sure-info.org). It has two parts: 1) chapters on general search methods common across all evidence syntheses and 2) chapters describing the methods to use when searching for specific aspects of evidence syntheses, such as adverse effects / safety and economic evaluations. Chapters summarize current research evidence with links to the structured abstracts / appraisals. Conclusion: SuRe Info is a new open-access web resource that provides research-based summaries relating to information retrieval for evidence synthesis including systematic reviews. It provides a valuable addition to the information provided in The Cochrane Handbooks.

1. Identifying information retrieval research for systematic reviews
and other evidence syntheses beyond effectiveness reviews:
Summarized Research in Information Retrieval (SuRe Info)
Carol Lefebvre1, Sari Ormstad2, Jaana Isojärvi3, Patrice X. Chalon4, Mick Arber5, Sigrid Droste6, Steven Duffy7,
Julie Glanville5, Su Golder8, David Kaunelis9, Kristin Bakke Lysdahl10, Hannah Wood5, Kath Wright8
Background / Objective Methods
 To date, Cochrane has focused primarily on publishing systematic reviews of the effectiveness of
healthcare interventions and subsequently reviews of diagnostic test accuracy. Cochrane is
considering extending its remit to evidence syntheses in other areas, such as economic
evaluations, prognosis and qualitative research.
 Under MECIR (Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews), if a
Cochrane Review has specific eligibility criteria around study design to address adverse effects,
economic issues or qualitative research questions, it is now mandatory that searches must be
undertaken to address these issues.
 We present a new web resource, SuRe Info, where these search issues, together with others, are
covered.
SuRe Info is published as a section of the HTAi Vortal Included publications receive a publication appraisal The key messages from the appraisals are summarized
Next steps
1. Invite more information specialists with appropriate
content expertise to be involved in the project
2. Complete all SuRe Info chapters by mid-2015
3. Continue updating all chapters twice per year
4. Continue to carry out targeted marketing of the web
resource
 We run topic-specific search strategies in
selected relevant databases.
 Publications fulfilling the SuRe Info inclusion
criteria receive a structured abstract
containing a brief critical appraisal
(“publication appraisal”) prepared by one
SuRe Info information specialist and checked
by another.
 The key messages from the appraisals are
summarized into topic-specific chapters.
Results
Chapters on general search methods common across all health
technologies
Chapters describing the methods to use when searching
for specific aspects of health technologies
Sources to search:
 How many sources to search? not yet started
 Value of searching different sources not yet started
 Value of searching for different publication types/formats not yet started
 Service providers and search interfaces ongoing
Designing search strategies:
 Strategy development ongoing
 Search filters completed
 Other limits: language, date ongoing
Peer reviewing search strategies ongoing
Documenting and reporting the search process not yet started
 Health problem and current use of technology
completed
 Description and technical characteristics of technology
completed
 Safety completed
 Diagnostic accuracy completed
 Clinical effectiveness ongoing
 Costs and economic evaluation completed
 Ethical analysis ongoing
 Organizational aspects not yet started
 Social aspects ongoing
 Legal aspects completed
1 Lefebvre Associates Ltd, United Kingdom; 2 sor@nokc.no , Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services
(NOKC), Norway; 3 jaana.isojarvi@thl.fi , National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finnish Office for Health
Technology Assessment (Finohta), Finland; 4 Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), Belgium; 5 York Health
Economics Consortium (YHEC), University of York, United Kingdom; 6 Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health
Care (IQWiG), Germany; 7 Kleijnen Systematic Reviews Ltd, York, United Kingdom; 8 Centre for Reviews and
Dissemination (CRD), University of York, United Kingdom; 9 Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in
Health (CADTH), Canada; 10 Centre for Medical Ethics, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Norway
Conclusion
 SuRe Info is a new open-access web resource that provides
research-based summaries relating to information retrieval for
evidence synthesis including systematic reviews.
 SuRe Info provides a valuable addition to the information
provided in The Cochrane Handbooks.
into topic-specific chapters
http://www.sure-info.org