Resources for handsearchers

Getting involved as a Handsearcher

The aims of The Cochrane Collaboration are "preparing, maintaining and disseminating systematic reviews of the effects of health care". Before one can prepare a systematic review, one has to find the relevant research reports; in the case of The Cochrane Collaboration, this usually means reports of randomised clinical trials. This can be surprisingly difficult. Cochrane review authors rely on several means of searching for relevant reports, including both electronic and manual methods. For complete identification of published reports, there appears to be no alternative to a page-by-page search of the literature.

Handsearching involves the laborious task of searching through medical journals for accounts of controlled trials which are not yet indexed in the major electronic databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE. Less than a third of the world's medical journals are routinely indexed in the major electronic databases. Most Review Groups, Fields, and Centres are seeking volunteer handsearchers and will provide the necessary training and support. Handsearching of journals is coordinated by the US Cochrane Center.

If you are interested in becoming involved as a Handsearcher then we suggest you check the Cochrane Handsearchers Manual (pdf) as well as CARG's handsearchers manual. When you become more familiar with the handsearchers activities we will send you a test handsearching material. Later you will need to choose the journal you are interested to handsearch, which will be checked if it is not handsearched by other groups and will be registered under your name. In the CARG handsearchers usually provide us with the copies of tables of contents of the journals that had been handsearched by them. In the tables of contents the relevant articles are marked as RCT (randomized controlled trial) and CCT(clinical controlled trial). If the handsearcher is not sure if the study is  RCT or CCT we are requesting to provide  us with the  copy of the article (or at least the abstract). Further on the records are checked and entered into the Anaesthesia Review Group's Specialized Register which is quarterly submitted to the CENTRAL, the Cochrane Collaboration's Central Register of Controlled Clinical Trials. For more details please contact our Trials Search Co-ordinator Karen Hovhannisyan <karen.hovhannisyan doesnotexist@cochrane.org gmail.com>.

      Databases and procedural documents:

• Handsearcher manual (pdf)
  
• Master list of journals being searched - the primary database search page, including submission resources and downloads of the MS Excel-format master list and the journal list.
  
• Fifty journals with the highest number of controlled trials in CENTRAL (wpd)

       Training resources:

• Handsearcher training online course
  
• List of additional training resources
  

The Cochrane Anaesthesia Review Group is is registered to handsearch the following journals:

• Intensive Care Medicine
• American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
• Anaesthesiology
• Journal of Clinical Anaesthesia
• Anesthesia and Analgesia
• Annales Francaise d'Anesthesie et Reanimation
• Anaesthesia and Reanimatiology
• Canadian Journal of Anaesthesiology
• Czecko-Slovak Journal of Anesthesiologie
• Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia
• European Journal of Anaesthesiology
• Regional Anaesthiology
• BMJ

We always welcome new handsearchers. Please contact Karen Hovhannisyan <karen.hovhannisyan doesnotexist@cochrane.org gmail.com>  if you are interested in becoming a handsearcher.