Human Resources for Health in Maternal, Neonatal and - HRH ...

The review protocol
Specific resources such as databases and meta-indexes were searched in order to obtain materials.
Documents were identified using specific keywords and combinations of these. The usefulness of
these documents was then assessed according to criteria which were based upon relevance to the
review questions.
Search strategy
The Cochrane handbook for the systematic review of interventions (Higgins 2008) was consulted for
guidance on searching for studies. The handbook recommends that the search process be clearly
documented. In line with this, the full strategy for each search and the total number of hits retrieved
by each search strategy was recorded. A table outlining where all material was retrieved is available
at Appendix 3 and a summary is given at Table 9 below. This approach enables others to replicate
the search with similar results.
The search strategy adopted six approaches.
1. Subject specific and specialized databases were identified and searched.
2. Relevant non-indexed and indexed journals were identified. Those not included in the
database searches above were then hand searched to ensure comprehensiveness.
3. The search for fugitive literature also makes use of directories such as electronic gateways to
indicate organizations undertaking topic-specific research and development. The websites of
a number of key organisations were searched for relevant documentation.
4. Materials were also gained through hand searches and snowballing from the references of
key documents.
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