The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews
Abstract Background Researchers performing high-quality systematic reviews search across multiple databases to identify relevant evidence. However, the same publication is often retrieved from several databases. Identifying and removing such duplicates (“deduplication”) can be extremely time-consumi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2023-09-01
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| Series: | BMC Biology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01686-z |
| _version_ | 1797556462220738560 |
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| author | Kaitlyn Hair Zsanett Bahor Malcolm Macleod Jing Liao Emily S. Sena |
| author_facet | Kaitlyn Hair Zsanett Bahor Malcolm Macleod Jing Liao Emily S. Sena |
| author_sort | Kaitlyn Hair |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Researchers performing high-quality systematic reviews search across multiple databases to identify relevant evidence. However, the same publication is often retrieved from several databases. Identifying and removing such duplicates (“deduplication”) can be extremely time-consuming, but failure to remove these citations can lead to the wrongful inclusion of duplicate data. Many existing tools are not sensitive enough, lack interoperability with other tools, are not freely accessible, or are difficult to use without programming knowledge. Here, we report the performance of our Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD), a novel tool to perform automated deduplication of systematic searches for biomedical reviews. Methods We evaluated ASySD’s performance on 5 unseen biomedical systematic search datasets of various sizes (1845–79,880 citations). We compared the performance of ASySD with EndNote’s automated deduplication option and with the Systematic Review Assistant Deduplication Module (SRA-DM). Results ASySD identified more duplicates than either SRA-DM or EndNote, with a sensitivity in different datasets of 0.95 to 0.99. The false-positive rate was comparable to human performance, with a specificity of > 0.99. The tool took less than 1 h to identify and remove duplicates within each dataset. Conclusions For duplicate removal in biomedical systematic reviews, ASySD is a highly sensitive, reliable, and time-saving tool. It is open source and freely available online as both an R package and a user-friendly web application. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:02:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bf092f0d5903498d8838f0bc31d766c3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1741-7007 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:02:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-bf092f0d5903498d8838f0bc31d766c32023-11-20T10:55:43ZengBMCBMC Biology1741-70072023-09-0121111210.1186/s12915-023-01686-zThe Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviewsKaitlyn Hair0Zsanett Bahor1Malcolm Macleod2Jing Liao3Emily S. Sena4Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of EdinburghCentre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of EdinburghCentre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of EdinburghCentre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of EdinburghCentre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of EdinburghAbstract Background Researchers performing high-quality systematic reviews search across multiple databases to identify relevant evidence. However, the same publication is often retrieved from several databases. Identifying and removing such duplicates (“deduplication”) can be extremely time-consuming, but failure to remove these citations can lead to the wrongful inclusion of duplicate data. Many existing tools are not sensitive enough, lack interoperability with other tools, are not freely accessible, or are difficult to use without programming knowledge. Here, we report the performance of our Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD), a novel tool to perform automated deduplication of systematic searches for biomedical reviews. Methods We evaluated ASySD’s performance on 5 unseen biomedical systematic search datasets of various sizes (1845–79,880 citations). We compared the performance of ASySD with EndNote’s automated deduplication option and with the Systematic Review Assistant Deduplication Module (SRA-DM). Results ASySD identified more duplicates than either SRA-DM or EndNote, with a sensitivity in different datasets of 0.95 to 0.99. The false-positive rate was comparable to human performance, with a specificity of > 0.99. The tool took less than 1 h to identify and remove duplicates within each dataset. Conclusions For duplicate removal in biomedical systematic reviews, ASySD is a highly sensitive, reliable, and time-saving tool. It is open source and freely available online as both an R package and a user-friendly web application.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01686-zAutomation toolsLiving systematic reviewsDeduplicationSystematic searchBibliographic databaseCitation manager |
| spellingShingle | Kaitlyn Hair Zsanett Bahor Malcolm Macleod Jing Liao Emily S. Sena The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews BMC Biology Automation tools Living systematic reviews Deduplication Systematic search Bibliographic database Citation manager |
| title | The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews |
| title_full | The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews |
| title_fullStr | The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews |
| title_short | The Automated Systematic Search Deduplicator (ASySD): a rapid, open-source, interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews |
| title_sort | automated systematic search deduplicator asysd a rapid open source interoperable tool to remove duplicate citations in biomedical systematic reviews |
| topic | Automation tools Living systematic reviews Deduplication Systematic search Bibliographic database Citation manager |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01686-z |
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