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Table 4 Comparing the three methods of tracking extracted data

From: Increasing value and reducing waste in data extraction for systematic reviews: tracking data in data extraction forms

Methods

Advantages

Disadvantages

Simple annotation

• Available

• Easy

• Full texts must be available

• Ties user to original highlighted PDF

• Difficult to update

• Requires PDF editor

Descriptive addressing

• Available

• Applicable to any PDF of same report

• Update is possible

• No editing required in PDF

• Full texts must be available

• Less easy than simple annotation

• Uniformity of location definition could be problematic

Cartesian coordinates

• Possibility of hyperlinking from data to report

• Possibility of automating data quality check

• Ease of update

• Full texts must be available

• Piloting––unavailable to wide use