General Overview of Service
Depending on the librarian's availability, if the APU Librarian is listed as a co-author, they will work with your team to design and report thorough search strategies based on guidelines and standards set forth by Cochrane, PRISMA, JBI and IOM. Our librarians provide:
- Comprehensive, replicable search strategies for multiple databases and grey literature resources.
- Mendeley or Zotero Library of de-duplicated results or RIS file of de-duplicated results.
- Excel workbook of search results.
- Write the complete search methodology that can be included in the final systematic review/scoping review manuscript
- A completed PRISMA flow diagram in png format.
- For more info see how your librarian can help
Please allow for a minimum of 4 weeks for the scoping/systematic review literature search to be completed. Your librarian can give you a more precise estimate after you submit the review request form.
Authorship
According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, authorship should be based on the following four criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
The search strategies librarians design and implement are a substantial contribution to the design of the study while the citation data we acquire and organize is a substantial acquisition of data. The written methods regarding the design of the search, resources searched, and data retrieved fall under drafting the work. We will provide any requested feedback and revisions as well as final approval of the written work. If we agree to be an author of a systematic or scoping review, we will stand behind the accuracy and integrity of our role in the project.
If you would prefer to not include a librarian as an author we are happy to provide guidance on a search you design on your own.
What We Require
Before collaborating with you on your systematic review project, we ask that you provide the following (this information can be updated after you meet with your librarian):
- Preliminary Search: The goals of the preliminary search include: identifying existing reviews, assessing volume of potentially relevant studies (assume an exhaustive search will identify about 2-3 times the number located in a preliminary search), locate at least 2-5 example articles that meet your review criteria.
- Your research question
- Question in PICO format
- List of inclusion and exclusion criteria
- A minimum of 3 example articles (benchmark articles) that meet the inclusion criteria for your systematic review
- A timeline/schedule for completion of the systematic review project
- A list of all members of your systematic review team
Once you have this information ready, please submit the Systematic Review Request form. A librarian will be assigned to work with you on your project moving forward.
Before collaborating with you on your scoping review project, we ask that you provide the following (this information can be updated after you meet with your librarian):
- Preliminary Search: The goals of the preliminary search include: identifying existing reviews, assessing volume of potentially relevant studies, and locate at least 3 example articles (benchmark articles) that meet your inclusion criteria
- Your research question
- Question in PCC Format
- List of inclusion and exclusion criteria
- A minimum of 3 example articles (benchmark articles) that meet the inclusion criteria for your scoping review
- A timeline/schedule for completion of the scoping review project
- A list of all members of your scoping review team
Once you have this information ready, please submit the Scoping Review Search Request Form. A librarian will be assigned to work with you on your project moving forward.
Collaborative Process - Librarian as co-author
Once we have received your systematic or scoping review request form, a librarian will contact you to begin the collaborative work process:
- We may request an in-person or phone meeting to discuss your question in more depth and discuss issues like timelines for completion.
- Your librarian will put together an initial list of search terms and an initial search strategy. You will be asked to review these for any missing terms or to remove terms that might not be relevant to your question.
- After agreeing on the search terms, your librarian will translate the search strategy for multiple databases (e.g. Medline, ProQuest Health Science Databases, CINAHL, Web of Science, etc.) - usually 3-4. This ensures the most comprehensive search of the literature.
- Upon completion of the search, you will receive the following:
- A citation library from Zotero or Mendeley (usually in RIS format; speak to your librarian about other software options)
- A search methods document: includes every replicable search strategy and an explanation of search methods
- A Google Sheet with all citations: can be helpful for tracking articles that are included/excluded from analysis
- Protocol (registration & publication)
- Provide a template for the protocol registration
- Draft the methods section of the protocol per template
- Draft the methods section for the protocol for publication (based on journal format requirements) if the team decides to publish the protocol.
- In the writing phase, the Librarian will complete the following:
- Drafting of literature search description in the "Methods" section
- Creation of PRISMA diagram
- Drafting of literature search appendix
- Review other manuscript sections and final draft
How can the library help?
The average review takes 1,168 hours to complete.
A librarian can help you speed up the process.
The methodology for scoping reviews is similar to systematic reviews. While there are some differences, they still require significant time and resources to complete. Scoping reviews follow established guidelines and best practices to produce high-quality research. Librarian involvement in scoping reviews is based on two levels. In Tier 1, the librarian will collaborate with researchers in a consultative manner. In Tier 2, the librarian will be an active member of your research team and co-author on your review. Roles and expectations of librarians vary based on the level of involvement desired. Examples of these differences are outlined in the table below.
| Role | Tasks | Tier 1: Consultative | Tier 2: Research Partner / Co-author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic Development | Guidance on process and steps | Yes | Yes |
| Background searching for past and upcoming reviews | Yes | Yes | |
| Development of Eligibility Criteria | Development and/or refinement of review topic | Yes | Yes |
| Assistance with refinement of PCC (population, comparator(s), and key questions) | Yes | Yes | |
| Guidance on study types to include | Yes | Yes | |
| Protocol Creation and Registration | Guidance on protocol registration | Yes | Yes |
| Draft the protocol for registration/publication (the Librarian must be first author on the protocol) | No | Yes | |
| Searching | Identification of databases for searches | Yes | Yes |
| Instruction in search techniques and methods | Yes | Yes | |
| Training in citation management software use for managing and sharing results | Yes | Yes | |
| Development and execution of searches | No | Yes | |
| Downloading search results to citation management software and removing duplicates | No | Yes | |
| Documentation of search strategies | No | Yes | |
| Management of search results | No | Yes | |
| Study Selection and Extraction (Charting) | Guidance on methods | Yes | Yes |
| Guidance on data extraction (charting), and management techniques and software | Yes | Yes | |
| Writing and Publishing | Suggestions of journals to target for publication | Yes | Yes |
| Drafting of literature search description in "Methods" section | No | Yes | |
| Creation of PRISMA diagram | No | Yes | |
| Drafting of literature search appendix | No | Yes | |
| Review other manuscript sections and final draft | No | Yes | |
| Librarian contributions warrant co-authorship | No | Yes |
The average review takes 1,168 hours to complete.
A librarian can help you speed up the process.
Systematic reviews follow established guidelines and best practices to produce high-quality research. Librarian involvement in systematic reviews is based on two levels. In Tier 1, the librarian will collaborate with researchers in a consultative manner. In Tier 2, the librarian will be an active member of your research team and co-author on your review. Roles and expectations of librarians vary based on the level of involvement desired. Examples of these differences are outlined in the table below.
| Role | Tasks | Tier 1: Consultative | Tier 2: Research Partner / Co-author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic Development | Guidance on process and steps | Yes | Yes |
| Background searching for past and upcoming reviews | Yes | Yes | |
| Development of Eligibility Criteria | Development and/or refinement of review topic | Yes | Yes |
| Assistance with refinement of PICO (population, intervention(s), comparator(s), and key questions) | Yes | Yes | |
| Guidance on study types to include | Yes | Yes | |
| Protocol Creation and Registration | Guidance on protocol registration | Yes | Yes |
| Draft the protocol for registration/publication (the Librarian must be the first author on the protocol) | No | Yes | |
| Searching | Identification of databases for searches | Yes | Yes |
| Instruction in search techniques and methods | Yes | Yes | |
| Training in citation management software use for managing and sharing results | Yes | Yes | |
| Development and execution of searches | No | Yes | |
| Downloading search results to citation management software and removing duplicates | No | Yes | |
| Documentation of search strategies | No | Yes | |
| Management of search results | No | Yes | |
| Study Selection and Extraction | Guidance on methods | Yes | Yes |
| Guidance on data extraction, and management techniques and software | Yes | Yes | |
| Writing and Publishing | Suggestions of journals to target for publication | Yes | Yes |
| Drafting of literature search description in "Methods" section | No | Yes | |
| Creation of PRISMA diagram | No | Yes | |
| Drafting of literature search appendix | No | Yes | |
| Review other manuscript sections and final draft | No | Yes | |
| Librarian contributions warrant co-authorship | No | Yes |