Table 3 Benefits and insights gained from using the outcomes measurement properties filter and conducting a citation search to locate psychometric articles

Benefits

 1.Combined with reference checks, the precise filter was more sensitive than using the precise filter by itself or performing citation searching in our sample of six tools

 2.The precise filter was more precise when it is used alone than when it is combined with reference checks or when a citation search is performed in our sample of six tools

 3.The precise filter decreased the number of records that we had to screen, and the number of full text articles that we needed to locate and screen—which translates to decrease in time and resources needed to allocate to screening

 4.Individuals thinking of using the OMP filter have the option of using either the precise and sensitive OMP filter depending on their goal or the resources they have

 5.The OMP (sensitive and precise) filter has been validated and is published in an open access journal

 6.The OMP (sensitive and precise) filter is easy to use, and its developers provide clear instructions on how to apply the filter in their development and validation study [10]

 7.Although this was not the purpose in our study, the OMP (sensitive and precise) filter can be used to help identify psychometric articles for any tool that measure a particular concept of interest

Insights

 1.Searching using the OMP (sensitive and precise) filter is limited to PubMed, which means that psychometric articles not indexed in PubMed may not be captured

  a.Checking the reference list of identified psychometric articles may help locate psychometric articles not indexed in PubMed

  b.From our experience, the precise filter was more successful at identifying articles for PROM than non-PROM, which could potentially be influenced by some non-PROM being developed in other than healthcare disciplines or fields

  c.Psychometric articles that are not published in open access journals may not be located through PubMed

 2.When using the OMP (sensitive and precise) filter to search for the psychometric articles of particular tools, the search is dependent on knowing the tool name

  a.Tool names are sometimes composed of very commonly used terms that may result in a large increase in the records retrieved. In these instances, we added double quotation marks at the beginning and at the end of the tool’s name

  b.Some tool names are accompanied with acronyms. These acronyms were not always unique to the tool that we searched for, and sometimes increased the number of irrelevant records retrieved

  c.Tool names sometimes may differ slightly depending on the authors or variations in the tool name may occur through time. Searches with the precise filter may need to be iteratively modified if new names are found. For example, for the tool named “Care Transitions Measure”, we needed to add the search term “Care Transition Measure” to the search strategy because we found four articles [78−81] in the reference lists of included articles (these articles were indexed in PubMed and locatable by the precise filter) where the word “transitions” was not pluralized in the tool name. We also found slight nomenclature differences across articles for the “Risser Patient Satisfaction Scale” [82,83,84], which is sometimes referred to as the “Patient Satisfaction Instrument” [35] or “Patient Satisfaction Index” [85, 86]

  d.An alternative searching method is required when searching for psychometric articles of tools that do not have an explicit name

 3.The OMP (precise and sensitive) filter was developed and validated in 2009. Since 2009, there has been advancement in PubMed and in the field of measurement

  a.In 2019, a new PubMed interface was launched with updated technology, and included changes in search syntax and translations. For example, PubMed improved automatic term mapping by programing the system to detect and alter search results based on the presence of other regional spelling variation (e.g., British, and American spelling) of a term, singular and plural forms, and synonyms [74]

  i).When we used the OMP (precise and sensitive) filter on PubMed, the following error message appeared: The following terms were not found in PubMed: Studies, ''addresses'', ''lectures'', cases'', works'', ''congresses'

  b.In 2018, The COSMIN manual [75, 76] was updated to have a greater emphasis on content validity

  c.In 2021, Stanick and colleagues [77, 87] published a scale for appraising the pragmatic properties of tools

Citation Search [17, 49]

 Benefits

  1.Our approach at citation searching used broader and more general databases (Scopus and Web of Science) which spans beyond the healthcare literature

   a The citation searching may identify articles that are not indexed on PubMed and therefore cannot be identified through searching with the OMP (precise and sensitive) filter

  2.A citation search can be used to search for the psychometric articles of tools that do not have an explicit name or when the search with OMP (precise and sensitive) filter did not locate a psychometric article

  3.A citation search is not susceptible to the terms that makes up the tool’s name or the variability pertaining to the tool’s name that may exist

Considerations

 1.The results of citation searching are dependent on the identified development articles used for the search

  a.Sometimes, development studies are reported in more than one article. Subsequent psychometric articles may cite one of the articles or may cite both

  b.Performing a citation searching on all development articles and deduplicating the number of records will increase the sensitivity of the search but would require a preliminary search to find the development articles and would also increase the number of records that needs to be screened

 2.The way we performed a citation search is limited to the articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science

  a.An article that cites the development article used for searching may be missed by the citation search if it is not indexed as a cited article on Scopus and Web of Science

  b.An article not indexed in Scopus and Web of Science will not be identified

  c.Books or online reports reporting on the development of tools cannot be used to perform a citation search on Scopus and Web of Science

 3.The citation search may identify more records than by searching using the OMP (precise and sensitive) filter; this is especially true for tools that are used a lot in primary studies to evaluate outcomes, but do not aim to evaluate the psychometric properties of the tool