This section of the protocol should detail what textual data is to be extracted and the tool that will be used for extracting that data. JBI reviewers are required to use the text and opinion data extraction tool which can be found in Appendix I. This template data extraction tool may be adapted by reviewers as required. Textual data extraction serves the same purpose across evidence types - as in the previous modules that considered quantitative, qualitative and economic evidence, extraction aims to facilitate the accurate retrieval of important data that can be identified from many papers and summarized into a single document. An extraction is a summary of the main details of the publication and should be conducted after carefully reading the publication. Textual data extraction incorporates several fields relating to the type of text, its authors and participants, then the content of the paper in the form of conclusions.
Textual data extraction involves transferring conclusions from the original publication using an approach agreed upon and standardized for the specific review. Thus, an agreed format is essential to minimize error, provide an historical record of decisions made about the data in terms of the review, and to become the data set for categorization and synthesis. Specifically, the reviewer is seeking to extract the conclusions drawn by the author or speaker and the argument that supports the conclusion. The supporting argument is usually a quotation from the source document and is cited by page number with the conclusion if using JBI SUMARI. Many text and opinion based reports do not report conclusions explicitly. It is for this reason that reviewers are required to read and re-read each paper closely to identify the conclusions to be generated into JBI SUMARI. Conclusions should be extracted as verbatim statements from the author. It is recommended that double textual data extraction is performed independently by two reviewers. This aims to reduce errors in textual data extraction, assisted by using a standardized extraction tool.