Research Assistance

The average systematic review takes about 1168 hours to complete. Our reference librarians can help you speed up the process.

What is a systematic review?

• According to the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews, a systematic review is a review that seeks "to collate evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question."
• In other words, a systematic review attempts to collect and analyze all papers written that answer a specific research question. Researchers find and select these papers based on specified inclusion criteria.
• Systematic reviews also aim to minimize bias by "using explicit, systematic methods documented in advance with a protocol."
  • In other words, systematic reviews must include a record of the search strategy used to find the relevant papers and, ideally, should also have a protocol written before any searching is begun.

Common Elements of a Systematic Review

While the Cochrane methodology to systematic reviews is one of the most common, there is no one absolute standard for systematic reviews. However, there are common elements that all quality systematic reviews should have.

• A specific research question (often in the PICO format), along with clearly stated objectives for the review and pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria for the studies.
• A reproducible, comprehensive search strategy. 
• A meta-analysis of the selected papers.

Library staff are available to consult with researchers, research groups, and students. Some of the services we offer include:

• guidance on the process
• searching for existing reviews on the topic
• help with refinement of the search question
• guidance on types of studies to include
• guidance on protocol registration
• identification of databases for searches
• instruction in search techniques and methods
• construction of the search strategy and search translation
• authorship of the Methods section
• training in citation management systems and screening tools (RefWorks and Covidence)

Librarian involvement offers many benefits, and the more the librarian knows about your project the better the project will be.  To that end, librarians do NOT offer minimal involvement services.  For example, if you have already have a final search string that you simply need to have run in the databases and uploaded to Covidence, please follow the steps in our Covidence Guide to do this. Similarly, the library is unable to assist with locating PDFs of articles and uploading them to Covidence. Please refer to the Covidence Guide for a few tips on that process. 

Residents and students will be taught the process of conducting a literature search for a systematic review, with the expectation that the student will learn the process and will be able to independently handle more of the steps themselves, in preparation for a future career that will likely include intensive literature searches.