What is Handsearching?
The term handsearching is used to describe the act of carefully searching each journal page by page for clinical trials.  The aim is that once a journal is handsearched for clinical trials it will never need to be done again.  Therefore it is crucial that the search for trials is done thoroughly, so it is important that all handsearchers receive training.

Click HERE for the Handsearch training guide

Handsearching is the fundamental building block upon which all data about clinical trials is being collected by the Cochrane Collaboration.  Although more recent publications can be searched electronically, up to 40% of dermatology trials are still missed by these means.  This is why all issues of journals have to be searched manually.

Click HERE for the Dermatology journals we know about - please let us know if we have missed any  

Why do we need to handsearch? 
The reason that this huge effort has been undertaken by the Cochrane Collaboration (for clinical trials in all areas of health care, not just dermatology) is that there is a lot of information available from clinical studies over the last 50 years.  Too often, however, the information about clinical trials is difficult to find because they were not clearly catalogued in the first place.  The aim is to have all the articles referring to trials clearly identified and readily available to anyone worldwide who wishes to use them.  The benefit to us all will be that eventually, all medical practice will be fundamentaly based on good evidence that a treatment works.  This will therefore improve the quality of care we receive when we are ill.

Click HERE to see the usefulness of handsearching. 

Search strategies for the identification of studies

Electronic searches

There is currently no systematic approach to searching the internet for skin trials. This is because the priority is to handsearch dermatology journals, many of which are not yet on any electronic database. Electronic searches are done by the Skin Group Trials Search Co-ordinator for all authors unless they particularly wish to do the searches themselves.

Hand searching

Reports of controlled trials are continually being added to the Skin Group Specialised Register. This is mainly done through handsearching dermatology journals and conference proceedings. A system is in place for training handsearchers to identify controlled studies. At present, more than 200 specialist dermatology journals have been identified. We are currently searching the following journals for all RCTs and CCTs:

Acta Dermato Venereologica (2000-2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
Actas Dermo-Sifiliograficas (1969-2000)*
Archives of Dermatology (1966-2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
Australasian Journal of Dermatology (1965-2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
British Journal of Dermatology (1965-2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
BMC Dermatology (2001-2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Chinese Journal of Dermatovenereology (1990-2001)*
Chinese Journal of Leprosy & Skin Disease (2000-2001)*
Clinical & Experimental Dermatology (1976- 2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
Contact Dermatitis (1975 to 2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
Cutis (1965-6 not available, 1967 to 2004 completed, access to this journal no longer available)
Dermatology (1992 to 2004 completed, access to this journal no longer available)
Dermatologica (1948-1991)
Dermatologica Tropica (1962-1964 completed)
Dermatologica Internationalis (1965-1969 completed)
Dermatologic Surgery (2000-2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
European Journal of Dermatology (1991 to the present)
Hautarzt (1950-2003 completed)
Hifubyo Shinryo (Japanese) (1990-current)*
International Journal of Dermatology (1985 to 2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Iranian Journal of Dermatology (1997 -2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
International Journal of Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases (1933-2004 completed)
Journal of Investigative Dermatology (1980 to 2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (1979 to 2006 completed, ongoing to the present)
Journal of Chinese AIDS/STD Prevention & Control (1997-2000)*
Journal of Chinese Leprosy (1968-1998)*
Journal of Clinical Dermatology (Chinese) (1982-2001)*
Journal of Dermatology & Venereology (Chinese) (2001)*
Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (1992-2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Journal of the Philippine Dermatological Society (1993-2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Melanoma Research (1991-1996 completed)
Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Dermatologie en Venereologie (1991 -2001 completed, ongoing to the present)
Pediatric Dermatology (1984-2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Journal of Dermatological Treatment (1989 -2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Leprosy Review (1953 to 2001 completed, but some gaps)
Revista Chilena de Dermatologia 1987-2005 completed, ongoing to the present)
Rinsho Derma (Japanese) (1990-2003 completed, ongoing to the present)*
Rinsho Hifuka (Japanese) (1990-2003 completed, ongoing to the present)*

*The trials from these journals have been entered on the Specialised Skin Register for submission to CENTRAL but have not been treated as Handsearch submissions because the language barrier precludes a quality check by the TSC

The German Cochrane Centre is co-ordinating handsearching of:
Arzneimittelforschung (1980-1995, 97-98 complete; 96 & 99 incomplete)

The Spanish Cochrane Centre is co-ordinating handsearching of:
Actualidad Dermatologica (1971-1999 incomplete)
Medicina Cutanea Ibero-Latino Americana (1973-2000 incomplete)

The following conference proceedings have been handsearched:
American Academy of Dermatology 2006 (64th meeting), 2007 (65th meeting)
Asian Congress of Dermatology (7th meeting) incorporating the 5th Regional Congress of Paediatric Dermatology 2005
Australasian College of Dermatologists (37th, 38th & 39th meetings) 2004-2006 also the Australian & New Zealand Vulvovaginal Society 2004, the 25th- 27th Annual Conferences of the Australasian Dermopathology Society 2004 -2006
British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) (60th-87th meetings)1980-2007
British Society for Investigative Dermatology (BSID) 1992, 1996, 1998,1999, 2002
British Society for Paediatric Dermatologists (16th meeting) 2002, (20th meeting 2005)
British Society for Photodermatologists (BPDG) 1992, 1998, 2001
Congres Annuel de la Recherche 2003
European Academy of Dermato-Venereology (EADV) 1995 meeting, 7th-1998, 8th -1999, 11th-2002,12th-2003,14th-2005,15th-2006 (in progess)
European Academy of Dermato-Venereology Spring Symposium (4th meeting) 2006
European Association of Dermato-Oncology (3rd meeting) 2006
European Congress on Psoriasis 2004
European Dermatoepidemiology Network-International Dermatoepidemiology association (EADV-IDEA) (3rd meeting) 2001
European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) (29th-32nd) 1999-2003, 35thESDR 2005
European Wound Management Association 17th Conference 2007
Intercontinental Meeting of the Hair Research Societies (2nd & 3rd) 1998 & 2003
International Investigative Dermatology (4th Joint Meeting ESDR,SID & Japanese SID) 2003
International Itch Workshop (3rd) 2005
International Symposium on Atopic Dermatitis (ISAD) 2003, 2005
International Workshop on Neurobiology of the Skin 1998
International Workshop on Alopecia Areata (3rd & 4th meetings) 1998 & 2003
International Workshop for the Study of Itch 2005 (3rd meeting)
Montagna Symposium on Biology of the Skin (49th meeting) 2001
Nordic Congress of Dermatology & Venereology (30th meeting) 2004
Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) (60th-63rd, 65th - 67th meetings) 1999-2006. Note there was no 64th meeting because it was part of the joint meeting of Investigative International Dermatology.
World Congress (19th & 20th meetings) 1997 & 2002
World Congress on Cancer of the Skin (8th meeting) 2001 and (11th meeting) 2007

Once conference proceedings have been handsearched, the abstracts of those meetings less than 5 years old are electronically scanned into the database of the Skin Group's Specialised Register. Please note that the abstract part of these citations cannot be submitted to CENTRAL so it is important that the TSC searches the Specialised Register for authors.

Other strategies

We recommend that authors adopt additional strategies such as:
1. personal contact with content area experts;
2. searches of bibliographies of related topics; and
3. searches of meeting proceedings and reference lists in published papers.

Planned searching activities

Members of the Group are acutely aware of the need to identify all possible sources of evidence, including unpublished trials. To do this we need the assistance of authors. We urge authors to:

a) contact all authors of relevant studies published in the last five years to ask if they have unpublished studies that may be relevant to their review; and
b) request pharmaceutical companies, with an interest in relevant dermatological products, to provide data on unpublished trials for specific reviews.

Other sources include informal discovery and proceedings from ad hoc therapeutic meetings. Please let the TSC know about trials found by these means; once the paper copy or an electronic abstract has been quality checked it will be included on the database.