Systematic Review Tutorial

Sensitive Searching - creates a search that is comprehensive in its nature, covering an appropriately large body of literature. The sensitivity of a search can be calculated by taking the number of relevant reports identified and dividing by the total number of reports in existence. A sensitive search seeks to find everything as broadly as possible.

Pros:

• Captures most of the relevant literature
• Makes it difficult to miss relevant literature

Cons

• Time consuming screening and filtering process
• Greater number of irrelevant articles

Precise Searching - creates a search that is targeted and exact with specific results within a large body of literature.
The Precision of a search can be calculated by taking the number of relevant reports identified and dividing it by the total number of reports identified during the search. A Precise search seeks to find a specific, highly relevant area of literature.

Pros

• Captures most of the relevant literature
• Saves time in screen and filtering process

Cons

• Potential to miss relevant literature
• smaller body of literature to start from