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Table 2 The usefulness of transparent web search reporting in relation to the reproducibility of search results

From: Web searching for systematic reviews: a case study of reporting standards in the UK Health Technology Assessment programme

 

Websites

Search engines

Name

Essential information for reproducing search.

Essential information for reproducing search.

URL

Useful information but URLs may change due to re-organisation of website.

n/a

Dates searched

Useful information but searching at a later date may retrieve entirely different results rather than updating the original results (see results, below).

Useful information but searching at a later date may retrieve entirely different results rather than update the original results (see results below).

Search terms

Essential information for reproducing search.

Essential information for reproducing search.

Results

Useful information but results may change due to changes to web page content or removal of online documents, such as PDFs or spreadsheets.

Useful information but results may change due to search engine algorithm changes or personalised results.