Still a filtering failure? A follow-up commentary on automated MeSH indexing

Abstract

We previously found that automated indexing in PubMed and Medline increased the risk of inappropriately excluding human studies when using the human studies filter from the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy (HSSS). Following the National Library of Medicine’s transition from the Medical Text Indexer-Auto (MTIA) to the Medical Text Indexer-Next Generation (MTIX) in 2024, we wanted to assess whether that was still the case. Using the same approach as our previous study, we reviewed a set of MTIX-indexed records that were excluded by the HSSS. Only 1.1% turned out to be human studies that were inappropriately excluded – a major improvement over not only MTIA but also human indexers in our previous comparison. However, problems remain with automated indexing and search filters. This commentary outlines our findings and our ongoing concerns.