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Search results outliers among MEDLINE platforms
Christopher Sean Burns1, Robert M Shapiro2, Tyler Nix3
1Associate Professor, School of Information Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, sean.burns@uky.edu.
Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA
|July 2, 2019
Summary
Search results for MEDLINE records vary significantly across different platforms like PubMed, Web of Science, and Ovid. These inconsistencies highlight how platform interfaces impact data retrieval and challenge the assumption of uniform content access.
Area of Science:
- Bibliometrics
- Information Science
- Medical Informatics
Background:
- MEDLINE records are a critical resource for biomedical literature.
- Users expect consistent search results across different platforms accessing MEDLINE content.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate variations in search result counts across five major MEDLINE platforms.
- To assess the impact of platform-specific interfaces and query syntax on data retrieval.
Main Methods:
- Developed 29 sets of search queries targeting various metadata fields and operators.
- Adapted 5 logically equivalent queries for 5 MEDLINE platforms (PubMed, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, Ovid), totaling 145 queries.
- Analyzed result count deviations relative to PubMed using modified z-scores.
Main Results:
- Web of Science and ProQuest showed the most significant deviations from PubMed search results.
- EBSCOhost and Ovid demonstrated greater consistency, though Ovid applied an indexing algorithm affecting retrieval sets.
- Web of Science had issues with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term explosion.
Conclusions:
- Platform-specific interface enhancements significantly influence record retrieval.
- The assumption of uniform content access across MEDLINE platforms is challenged by observed inconsistencies.
- These discrepancies raise concerns about the impact of platform-specific factors on search outcomes.
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