Systematic Review Guide

General Guidance

If you are on a systematic review team whether with us or through another organization such as a hospital, the Medical Libray can support and guide you in the following ways:

• Describe what a systematic review is and when it is appropriate.
• Recommend other study designs if not appropriate or workshop your research question.
• Explain the steps of the systematic review process.
• Provide resources to register a protocol and write the review.
• Troubleshoot your search strategy.
• Indicate which databases will be relevant.

If only providing consultative services, we will not:

• Conduct the search.
• Manage search results.
• Write the methods section.

Authorship

Reviews often contain a lot of librarian involvement and it is recommended that a librarian be a part of the systematic review team. The services provided when a librarian is a co-author include what was previously stated and:

• Guidance on inclusion & exclusion criteria.
• Assistance with writing and registering a protocol.
• Development and execution of searches.
• Citation management and deduplication of all search results.
• Write the relevant sections of the manuscript.
• Review other manuscipt sections and final draft.

To begin the process with a librarian or to meet to discuss general guidance for your systematic review, please fill out the Systematic Review Consultation Form.

Source: Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews