Derive Meta Data

Derives custom columns of pre-defined topics from the title or abstract based upon keywords and phrases. Topics include which countries, provinces/states are identified in the title/abstract, primary author country and province derived from afflilation meta data, population types (i.e. infants, elderly, males, females, etc.) are identified in the title/abstract, and study types (i.e. Systematic Review, RCT, Case Control, etc.).

Synthesis Main Window Menu: Tools > Derive Meta Data

Derive Meta Data is a quick way to quantify the literature around selected topics in order to get up to speed quickly. The following are pre-defined fields which can be auomatically generated:
Table 1. Concept and Description
Concept Description
Countries Indentifies the countries (i.e. Canada, Malawi, Zambia, etc.) from the Title or Abstract field.
Provinces/States Indentifies the province/state (i.e. Alberta, California, etc.) from the Title or Abstract field.
Study Types Indentifies the study type (i.e. Systematic Review, RCT, Case Control, etc.) from the Title of Abstract field.
Population Types Indentifies the population type (i.e. Infant, Elderly, Male, Female, etc.) from the Title of Abstract field.
Author Country Indentifies the countries (i.e. Canada, Malawi, Zambia, etc.) from the PubMed affilication field (i.e. corresponding author location). Country for the United States and Canada is also defined using the provinces and states.
Author Province/States Indentifies the province/state (i.e. Alberta, California, etc.) from the PubMed affilication field (i.e. corresponding author location)
To Derive Meta Data, this is the process:
  1. Select the Concepts that you want the Meta Data to be derived for (e.g. Countries, Study Type, etc.)
  2. Select "Delete Existing Column" if you want the existing column (if it already exists) to be overwritten.
  3. Select "Insert Keywords and Highlight Abstract Text" if you want the keywords to be added into the Project Settings Hightlight Abstract Keywords (see Project Settings)
  4. Click the OK button to Derive the Meta Data.

Figure: Derive Meta Data