Restricted search: Factors that impact on research recruitment (Federated Search via Ovid of Three databases).

Background: Research recruitment is recognized as a complex and crucial element to successful research trials. The desire for a broader understanding of recruitment in chronic illness research led to the co-creation of a restricted search strategy to identify key literature and inform the creation of a taxonomy of recruitment in research. Methods: A federated search was created and performed in Medline, APA PsycINFO and Embase using the Ovid platform. Duplicates were removed using Ovid's deduplication feature. The search strategy contains keywords for recruitment combined with keywords related to factors (success, barriers, strategies etc.) or research subjects, limited to the title, keyword headings or key concepts fields. The search was further narrowed by adding a keyword search for nurses or nursing, in title, abstract, keyword headings/key concepts, and subject heading words, to focus on nursing perspectives on research recruitment. From the Embase results, limits were applied to remove the following publication types: conference abstracts and preprints (unpublished, non-peer reviewed). The search returns were planned for further restrictions through manual screening using more detailed eligibility criteria. The search was not limited by date nor by article type, aside from already mentioned limits, as a secondary aim of the search was to identify literature reviews and or frameworks on research recruitment to aid in placing the review findings in the context of the literature. Results: The returns of the search strategy will undergo further screening and be included in the publication of a restricted review on the impacting factors to recruitment in chronic illness research.