Our newly developed search filter for detecting all studies in PubMed in which laboratory animals are used or described was compared with the easily available and most obvious method (‘regular method’), the PubMed Limit: Animals. The number of records obtained with the two different methods was compared. In addition, both the search filter and the limit option were validated by actually performing two PubMed topic searches. The first topic search aimed at finding all available literature in PubMed about probiotic use in experimental pancreatitis (Supplement 1a, available online at http:la.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/full/la.2010.009117/DC1 ).
The second topic search tried to identify all studies about food restriction in laboratory animals (Supplement 1b, available online athttp:la.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/full/la.2010.009117/DC1 ).
The number of records found with our search filter as a proportion of the number of records retrieved by the Limit: Animals was calculated. We will refer to this proportion as the sensitivity* of the search filter.
The second topic search tried to identify all studies about food restriction in laboratory animals (Supplement 1b, available online at
The number of records found with our search filter as a proportion of the number of records retrieved by the Limit: Animals was calculated. We will refer to this proportion as the sensitivity* of the search filter.
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