How to build a literature evidence table: link outcome definitions and results to sources

Make an evidence row reopen the same place in the PDF

Add a reviewable locator to the evidence table: report ID, file version and source, physical PDF page counted from 1, printed page label if present, section or table, a necessary short verbatim excerpt, a separate interpretation and review status. A physical page is its position in the file, not necessarily the printed number. “Page 3” alone is ambiguous. This is a practical suggestion, not a universal reporting standard or a model run.

Confirm permission to obtain, upload and quote the material; record the actual version and access date. Free reading in PMC does not make every article freely redistributable. Check the article licence and third-party images separately. Do not bypass paywalls, batch-download full texts from the main PMC site or publish restricted full texts. Label abstract-only work and unread supplements honestly.

Check that text in the original PDF can be selected and searched reliably. Locate relevant methods, results and limitations, and retain only necessary short excerpts with context. Keep author text, your interpretation and unknowns separate. Flag scanned pages, broken reading order or unreadable tables for human inspection; do not have AI invent numbers from a caption. Locating a sentence is not full-text verification or proof of study quality.

Self-written synthetic locator: report A / file v1 / physical page 5 / printed page 3 / Methods; excerpt: “Readmission to this hospital within 30 days after discharge was recorded.” Separately: “This sentence does not establish outside-hospital coverage or an effect estimate.” The numbers 5 and 3 illustrate a locator, not a universal PDF offset. This is not a real paper or AI output.

Suggested complete request: “Use only my authorised [file/version and actually readable scope] to organise [fields]. For each field return report ID, physical PDF page counted from 1, printed label, section/table, a necessary short verbatim excerpt, a separate interpretation and open questions. Without supporting text, mark unknown; do not invent numbers or turn not reported into 0. Separate abstract, main text and supplements. Stop the affected field and explain unreliable text or pagination; do not claim full-text verification, independent human double extraction or a meta-analysis.”

Reopen the same file at the listed physical page and check the excerpt, context, numbers, units, denominator and strength of claim. In Zotero, an annotation’s “Show on Page” can return to its context. Its documentation warns that external page deletion, reordering or rotation can affect annotation placement. Recheck affected locations after a version change; an old annotation link does not verify a new version.

Adapt this suggested task

“Use my authorized reports and supplements to pilot an evidence table for the supplied question. Give report IDs, study-linkage evidence, source locations, source facts and separate interpretation. Retain design, population, comparison, outcome definition/window, denominator, effect name/unit/interval and adjustment. Distinguish not reported, not applicable and cannot tell. List conflicts, missing items and human decisions; invent no data, run no statistics and infer no causation. Return field instructions, linkage map, evidence table and gap list for review.”