Multi-language search for strengthening the outcome of systematic review

Abstract

Web based searching plays a vital role in systematic review which is a literature review method designed to locate the best available evidence relating to a specific topic. In addition to English language, languages such as German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese (Mandarin) considerably contribute in web based information propagation. On the other hand, publications related to some regional specific scientific research areas (e.g.: earthquake and tsunami) and especially some art and literature related research areas fully or partially in a language other than English. Thus, searching based on single language definitely not provide complete appraise and synthesize of a research question. Therefore, in this paper we propose searching in multiple languages to gain much better evidence about the intended topic. Initial findings showed that the number of search results in Japanese language gave 89 times more results than search results in English when searching topics that has regional importance (e.g.: “"Earthquake resistant buildings"”). However, this is an exhausting and time consuming task; because the researcher has to do the same search several times in different languages. This drawback is because none of the popular search engines is capable of providing results in different languages simultaneously (e.g.: English, German, etc.) to a search topic in one language (e.g.: English). Therefore, to have better systematic review, we propose a search engine that is capable of taking search topic in one language and providing ordered results in multiple languages simultaneously, including a brief translation in intended language.