Eric B Rimm, Paige Williams, Kerry Fosher, Michael Criqui, Meir J Stampfer
Rimm E B, Williams P, Fosher K, Criqui M, Stampfer M J.
Moderate alcohol intake and lower risk of coronary heart disease: meta-analysis of effects on lipids and haemostatic factors
BMJ 1999; 319 :1523
doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7224.1523
Re: Exclusion of foreign language papers
As we state in our methods, we focused our original search using
Medline, but supplemented this with other references from U.S. and
European sources. A quick scan of the references suggests that many of
the studies were conducted outside of the United States in European
countries in which English is not the first language. Additionally, many
of these papers were published in Scandinavian, British or general
European journals which we found through the sources we have listed.
Medline does search a large number of foreign (non-English) journals. We
did not find any foreign manuscripts which fit our main inclusion criteria
that were not also published in an English Journal. Therefore, while it
is possible that we missed a few articles published in European or Asian
journals (non-English), it is unlikely that the results from such studies
were not included in an English publication too.
Competing interests: No competing interests