Systematic literature reviews play a vital role in identifying the best available evidence for clinicians and healthcare policymakers. The resources required to produce systematic reviews can be significant, and a key to the success of any review is the search strategy used to identify relevant literature. However, the methods used to construct search strategies can be complex, time-consuming, resource-intensive and error-prone. In this review, we examine the state of the art in resolving complex structured information needs, focusing primarily on the healthcare context. We identify key challenges, issues and gaps exploring appropriate solutions and workarounds. We conclude by proposing a way forward to facilitate trust and transparency and to aid explainability, reproducibility and replicability through a set of key design principles for the development of search strategies in systematic literature reviews.

BIO Dr Andrew MacFarlane is a Reader in Information Retrieval at City, University of London. He is a member of both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Information and Library Science at that institution. His research interests in information retrieval or search technologies are wide ranging from the technical side of computing (search algorithms) to information science (meta-data for search) and HCI (accessible information retrieval systems). This work sits within the Centre for HCI Design at City. He has developed a particular interest over the years in professional search in various environments such as journalism and advertising and has been an investigator on a number of different projects investigating key issues in this field. He is also involved in bridging research and teaching, having run an information retrieval module for nearly 20 years. The cohort includes information science, information systems and data science students, many of whom go on to become professional searchers. He is therefore well acquainted with the challenges professional searchers face, and has actively been involved in pedagogical research to help early stage professional searchers to gain essential knowledge for their careers.

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