[Search strategies for retrieval of articles in Spanish journals. A case study: evaluation of the quality of information systems]. / Estrategias de búsqueda de artículos de revistas españolas. Estudio de un caso: evaluación de la calidad de los sistemas de información.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To describe a systematic procedure for exhaustive retrieval of Spanish articles about evaluation or health information systems (1983-1992); to analyze the useful terms, the item contribution and the retrieval failures of the sources. METHODS: As sources for identification of articles, data base Indice Médico Español (IME), contents of journals and references of the retrieved items have been used. As analysis variables, coincidence of terms in search profile, item's titles and key words; item contribution, specific contribution and overlap indexes; hindsight analysis of failures. RESULTS: 94 items have been retrieved, 83 of them have, at least one term related with the subject. Referred to sources contribution, IME gives 74 items; journal contents 75 and references 33. Specific contribution of IME was 16 items, contents 12 and references 2. Overlap between sources was 25.5%. CONCLUSION: The three sources are complementary. Complete retrieval of the literature requires systematic use of the abstracts and references of the papers, where the perception of its contents are less dependent of the terms used in the titles.