Using a Citation Manager to Add Levels of Evidence to a Literature Search Results Template

Background: The American Nurses Credentialing Center Hospital Magnet Recognition requires nurses to understand and apply research that improves patient care, safety, and costs. This happens when they identify the highest levels of evidence and translate them into practice. Research designs have the best evidence based on rigor, population size, validity, and randomization. To support Magnet Recognition efforts, librarians at Baptist Health South Florida updated their search results template to include levels of evidence with the citation, abstract, PMID and database link. To enhance understanding between levels of evidence, the Dartmouth College and Yale University EBM pyramid was added to the form.

Description: We customized our EndNote Output Style by inserting the “Type of Article” field, into the Journal Article Bibliography template using the command “Link Adjacent Text” with the following syntax: `Type of Article:`⁰Type of Article. This translated to Word like this example: Type of Article: Review. The “Publication Type” metadata from Scopus and OVID Medline landed seamlessly in Endnote. PubMed required import option “MEDLINE (OVID SP).” CINAHL required the citation file to be exported as “Generic bibliographic management software,” and then use the import option “CINAHL (EBSCO).” We acquired copyright clearance to use the EBM pyramid in our search results form and linked it to an infographic on appraisal of evidence on the last page.

Conclusion: This enhancement added about eight minutes to processing a results list of twenty-five references. The benefit to our patrons outweighed the increased time for the librarians. We are also applying this output style to the Excel Systematic Review Search Results Template. A REDCap survey, to evaluate our patrons’ satisfaction with the new format, will be distributed to all of those who used the search service since the update.