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Guidance on terminology, application, and reporting of citation searching: the TARCiS statement

BMJ 2024; 385 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-078384 (Published 09 May 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;385:e078384
  1. Julian Hirt, research fellow and lecturer1 2 3,
  2. Thomas Nordhausen, research fellow4,
  3. Thomas Fuerst, medical information specialist5,
  4. Hannah Ewald, medical information specialist5,
  5. Christian Appenzeller-Herzog, medical information specialist5
  6. on behalf of the TARCiS study group
    1. 1Pragmatic Evidence Lab, Research Centre for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
    2. 2Department of Health, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, St Gallen, Switzerland
    3. 3Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
    4. 4Institute of Health and Nursing Science, Medical Faculty, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
    5. 5University Medical Library, University of Basel, 4051 Basel, Switzerland
    1. Correspondence to: C Appenzeller-Herzog christian.appenzeller{at}unibas.ch
    • Accepted 19 March 2024

    Evidence syntheses adhering to systematic literature searching techniques are a cornerstone of evidence based healthcare. Beyond term based searching in electronic databases, citation searching is a prevalent search technique to identify relevant sources of evidence. However, for decades, citation searching methodology and terminology has not been standardised. An evidence guided, four round Delphi consensus study was conducted with 27 international methodological experts in order to develop the Terminology, Application, and Reporting of Citation Searching (TARCiS) statement. TARCiS comprises 10 specific recommendations, each with a rationale and explanation on when and how to conduct and report citation searching in the context of systematic literature searches. The statement also presents four research priorities, and it is hoped that systematic review teams are encouraged to incorporate TARCiS into standardised workflows.

    Synthesising scientific evidence by looking at the citation relationships of a scientific record (ie, citation searching) was the underlying objective when the Science Citation Index, the antecedent of Web of Science, was introduced in 1963.1 Although the availability of electronic citation indexes has increased, evidence syntheses in systematic reviews do not primarily rely on citation searching for literature retrieval but rather on search methods based on text and keywords.2 When used in systematic review workflows, citation searching traditionally constitutes a supplementary search technique that builds on an initial set of references from the primary database search (seed references).3

    Citation searching is an umbrella term that entails various methods of citation based literature retrieval (fig 1). Checking references cited by seed references, also known as backward citation searching, is the most prevalent and a mandatory step when conducting Cochrane reviews.4 In forward citation searching, systematic reviewers can also assess the eligibility of articles that cite the seed references. Backward and forward citation searching are known as direct citation searching (fig …

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