I recently did a short course on “How to Peer Review Search Strategies”. This was offered by INSTATS – an organization that offeres several excellent research related courses.
What is Peer reviewing of search strategies?
In India, we have a lacuna of knowledge about search strategies and the need for them to be structured. Most often very little thought is given to the strategy and it is done in an ad-hoc manner. Peer reviewing is something no one even thinks about..
The six hour session over two evenings – run by two expert Information Professionals – Carol Lefebvre – and Julie Glanville – was all about a very systematic approach for this activity.
The most important take aways:
Peer Reviewing of a search strategy
1. Has been mandated by several key bodies like the Cochrane Collaborarion, the JBI and more
2. Must be done BEFORE the searches are run
3. Must be carried out by a qualified and experienced Information Specialist
4. Should be done as a guide for the person who created the strategies – to make changes / improvements
5. The Peer Reviewer is NOT expected to make all needed corrections in the strategy
Elements taught / discussed in the course
Broadly we were coached on checking the following:
- Purpose of Peer Review and the Importance of Search Structure
- Search terms used – did they cover all synonyms and similar terms and if they were appropriate
- If the search syntaxes, limits and filters were used correctly
- If the translations from one database to another were done correctly
The four broad topics were covered in a total of SIX hours. Yes – that is how much there is to know and watch out for, if one has to do a search strategy or peer review one!
More details about the course which was held on the 5th and 9th of June, 2025
(Do note the costs involved – I have paid $172 to learn and then teach / assist authors in India!)
Search Strategies, Peer Reviewing and QMed
We at QMed are sometimes approached by authors with a request to “peer review” searches done by them. Most fail at fundamental levels! We cannot “correct them” if we are peer reviewing them. And if we offer peer review comments, it is most unlikely that they will be able to understand our comments and act on them.
We have created a course called “Advanced PubMed Searching for Authors of Systematic Reviews”. When authors do this course – we help them to make good strategies. We also coach them on how to search other free databases. This course needs to reach authors of systematic reviews all over India.
Search Strategies, Peer Reviewing and Indian Journals
We need ALL Indian journal Editorial teams to be made aware of the need for documentation of Search Strategies and their Peer Reviewing – if they accept Systematic / Scoping Reviews
Most often “Systematic Reviews” in Indian journals carry a very brief mention in the “Methods section” about how the search was carried out. Whereas what is required in addition, is an “Appendix” with the full strategy for every database searched (View an example here). It is a responsibility for journals to ask for correct search strategies
A sincere recommendation:
We need to develop expert search strategists to help every systematic review team to
- Create and document good, strong strategies
- To have access to other experts who will peer review their strategies
