Screening criteria

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Article screening is based on the abstracts. Articles whose abstracts are not included in any database are gathered manually and then reviewed with the same standards as those obtained directly from electronic databases.

The screening criteria are:

Back pain

Articles are discarded when they do not directly refer to common back pain, as previously described.

Articles about patients operated on for back pain are accepted, as well as studies on symptom measurement methods.

Languages

Articles in English, Spanish and French are accepted. Articles in other languages are discarded, although authors are invited to submit versions of their work in any of the accepted languages to the Editorial Committee.

Types of Articles

Articles that are not about true research studies are excluded, as well as those that are not possible to evaluate methodologically; for example, editorials, letters, interviews, biographies, minutes of congresses, case reports, comments or non-systematic literature reviews.

Articles on basic research with a clinical interest are identified and sent to a specific group of reviewers. When they are worth considering for publication in this Web site, the clinical-basic reviewers submit them to the Editorial Committee for approval.

Articles that are impossible to obtain are discarded, so that they cannot be evaluated. This is what occurs with articles that the library service of the Web of the Back cannot obtain. These articles cannot be obtained, within a three month time span, through the Spanish Library Consortium (C17) or through the Center for Scientific Information and Documentation (CINDOC) of the Ministry for Education and Science of the Spanish Government. They are also not forwarded by the author/s, within three months, when a request is made.

Quality control procedures:

• 20% of all abstracts is submitted to at least two experts. Consistency of their decision is evaluated.
• The Editorial Committee periodically reviews the articles that have been discarded during the screening process.