Standardisation of citation searching in medical research published
The TARCiS statement provides internationally recognised guidelines on the terminology, application and reporting of citation searches in medical research.
The University Medical Library and the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Basel have successfully developed international standards for citation searching and published their results in the renowned British Medical Journal. The TARCiS statement comprises ten evidence-based recommendations and four research priorities. It provides systematic reviewers with guidance on when and how citation searching should be conducted and how it should be reported. TARCiS stands for Terminology, Application, and Reporting of Citation Searching.
This seminal work aims to improve the comparability of research results in the medical literature through standardised guidelines. The Systematic Review Team of the University Medical Library, in collaboration with the experts Julian Hirt and Thomas Nordhausen, has conducted a scoping review of citation searching as a complementary search method. Based on this review and the results of an international Delphi study, the TARCiS statement provides clear guidelines for citation searching in medical research.