Background: A critical marker of high-quality systematic reviews is the identification and inclusion of all relevant, important studies. Up to 78% of systematic reviews have language restrictions; as a consequence, most reviews (93%) exclude at least 1 randomized controlled trial (RCT) (1). A 2012 study assessing Google Translate for translating non–English-language studies recommended caution in using this service (2). Recently, Google updated its translation engine, reporting that it is markedly more accurate than previous versions (3).
Objective: To examine the agreement between native-language and Google-translated abstractions of clinical trials published in languages other than English.
Methods and Findings: We searched ...
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Author, Article, and Disclosure Information
Jeffrey L Jackson,
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (J.L.J., A.A., D.K., C.S.)
Kurashiki Central Hospital, Okayama, Japan (A.K.)
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey (A.C.)
Université de Nantes, Nantes, France (J.F.)
University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany (A.G.)
Hôpital Universitaire de Genéve, Geneva, Switzerland (F.J.)
Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, China (R.S.)
Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M19-0891.
Reproducible Research Statement: Study protocol and data set: Available from Dr. Jackson (e-mail, jjackson@mcw.
This article was published at Annals.org on 30 July 2019.
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