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Table 1 Searches and hits

From: Current state of ethics literature synthesis: a systematic review of reviews

PubMed explorative search

 Date:

15 April 2015

 Publication dates:

No restriction (resulted in results from 1988 to 15.04.2015)

 Language:

No restriction

 Search string:

(“systematic review” OR “systematic literature review”[Title/Abstract] OR “qualitative review”[Title/Abstract] OR “literature review”[Title/Abstract] OR “argument-based”[Title/Abstract] OR “systematic survey“[Title/Abstract] OR “literature survey”[Title/Abstract] OR “systematische Übersichtsarbeit“) AND (Ethics[Title/Abstract] OR Bioethics[Title/Abstract] OR “ethical issues”[Title/Abstract] OR normative[Title] OR “ethical guidelines”[Title]) NOT protocol

 Hits:

399

PubMed refined search

 Date:

27 April 2015

 Publication dates:

Start: no date restriction; end: 15.04.2015

 Language:

No restriction

 Search string:

(“systematic review”[Title/Abstract] OR “systematic literature review”[Title/Abstract] OR “qualitative review”[Title/Abstract] OR “literature review”[Title/Abstract] OR “argument-based”[Title/Abstract] OR “systematic survey”[Title/Abstract] OR “systematic search”[Title/Abstract] OR “literature survey”[Title/Abstract] OR “systematische Übersichtsarbeit”) AND ((((Allocat*[Title] OR euthanasia[Title] OR “assisted dying”[Title] OR “end-of-life”[Title] OR palliative[Title] OR ration*[Title] OR attitude*[Title] OR motivation*[Title] OR decision*[Title]) AND (Ethics[Title/Abstract] OR Bioethics[Title/Abstract] OR “ethical issues”[Title/Abstract] OR ethical*[Title/Abstract] OR normative[Title/Abstract] OR “ethical guidelines”[Title/Abstract])) OR (Ethics[Title/Abstract] OR Bioethics[Title/Abstract] OR “ethical issues”[Title/Abstract] OR ethical*[Title] OR normative[Title] OR “ethical guidelines”[Title]))) NOT protocol* NOT “position statement” NOT “ethical approval” NOT ethics commit*

Explanation:

The exclusion (NOT) conditions for “protocol*”, “position statement”, “ethical approval” and “ethics commit*” were integrated to increase specificity of hits without decreasing sensitivity too much.

Hits:

441 (incl. duplicate hits regarding earlier search)

PhilPapers

 Date:

29 April 2015

 Publication dates:

Start: no date restriction; end: 15.04.2015 (i.e., all hits after that date ignored)

 Language:

No restriction

 Search mode:

Basic fuzzy filter

 Key words:

Mandatory key words:

Relevance key words:

“systematic” AND “review”

“ethics”

 Hits:

447 (incl. duplicate hits regarding earlier searches)

Google Scholar

 Date:

30 April 2015

 Publication dates:

Start: no date restriction; end: 15.04.2015 (i.e., all hits after that date ignored)

 Language:

No restriction

 Search mode:

Allintitle

 Display mode:

Sorted by relevance; citations deactivated

 Search string:

bioethics OR ethics AND (“systematic review” OR “literature review”)

 Hits:

87 (incl. duplicate hits regarding earlier searches)