Dual MA Extraction is a quality-controlled extraction process, where two users independently extract meta-analytical data from each article, and then all data are adjudicated by an Administrator.
The Admin adjudicates any disagreement between Reviewer A and Reviewer B and sets the final determination for each study. For example, if Reviewer A extracts the mean age as 70 but Reviewer B extracts it as 71, the Adjudicator will then need to choose between those values and identify the correct one.
Only those with Admin privileges can serve as Adjudicators, but any user can serve as a Reviewer.
This feature is useful to ensure that your team curates the most accurate and high quality data possible. Dual MA extraction can help with this since it has been shown that dual extraction results in fewer errors than single extraction (source).
Configure Dual MA Extraction #
To configure dual MA extraction, go to the Settings page under Nest Home and then scroll to the Extraction section. Then, select dual extraction to turn this feature on.
Warning: Toggling back from Dual MA Extraction to Standard MA Extraction will ONLY save final adjudications, and all data associated with non-final individual users’ extractions will be lost!
Dual MA Extraction Steps #
1. Two users must independently extract the meta-analytical data #
Once Dual MA Extraction is configured (see above), the software will automatically queue individual studies to users until at least two MA Extractions are Marked Complete.
If you need help with the MA Extraction process, check out this page. Each study will appear in the Adjudicate Extraction queue only after two independent MA extractions are Marked Complete.
Unlike Standard (single) Extraction, when a user is finished extracting in Dual mode, the data are NOT displayed on Synthesis. In Dual MA Extraction, data are queued for Adjudication, and displayed on Synthesis only after Adjudication on the study in question is Marked Complete.
2. Adjudicate the meta-analytical data #
After two users have extracted MA data on the same study, it will be placed into adjudication. Go to the Adjudicate MA Extraction page to review the data extracted by the two independent, underlying users.
At first the page will appear in the same format as the Dual MA Extraction page. This is because what is shown is the Final MA Extracted Data only. To toggle between viewing both the two independently extract data and final data and final data only, click the three column icon at the bottom to expand the panel.
Selecting this icon (red) will adjust the window display:
Maximise the tabs (red above), which will display three columns: Reviewer A (left hand column), Reviewer B (middle column), and Final (right most column). These names are displayed by default, but if you wish to blind them you may do so in Nest Settings. In this adjusted view it can be helpful to use the PDF zoom functions (red below).
The adjudicator will put the correct data in the Final column by first adding Interventions and arm sizes (red), then finalizing the Data Elements by selecting the plus sign (blue), and inputting the correct values.
Disagreements between reviewers are highlighted in red. The adjudicator can choose to input the same data as either of the reviewers or neither of them if they were both wrong. When done, to move on to the next study, hit Complete in the top right corner.
After adjudication of 2+ studies, Quantitative Synthesis outputs will be generated for view!
