Systematic Review Worksheet to Prepare for Meeting with a Librarian
Please complete the first 4 pages of this form before meeting with a librarian for the first time. It will help the meeting be more productive. Not sure what a systematic review is? See the last page of this handout for a definition.
Contact information
Name:
Type of Project: □ Paper □ Thesis/Dissertation □ Grant □ Other:
email: @uth.tmc.edu
Phone: Campus office:
Before you begin: Has a systematic review been done on your topic?
Please provide information on previous searching for systematic reviews on your topic. To find system- atic reviews, please refer to the UTSPH Library site: http://tinyurl.com/yzoc59o
Searched in: □ Medline □ Cochrane □ TRIP □ AHRQ □ Other:
Terms used: Provide citations for relevant reviews. Please bring any that you have printed out.
1. First author: Article title:
Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
2. First author: Article title: Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
3. First author: Article title:
Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
Research Aims
Specific aims state what you want to do in the order in which you want to do it. They should be concise and
presented in active language, such as “to determine,” “to quantify”; avoid vague verbs, “to study”.
□
□
□
□
1
Have you done searches for studies you would like to include in your review?
Please provide information on previous searching for original research articles (i.e. not systematic reviews) on your topic.
Searched in: □ Medline □ PsycINFO □ PubMed □ Other:
Terms used:
Provide citations for relevant articles. Please bring any that you have printed out.
1. First author: Article title: Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
2. First author: Article title:
Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
3. First author: Article title: Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
4. First author: Article title:
Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
5. First author: Article title: Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
6. First author: Article title:
Journal title: yr: vol: issue: pages:
Develop Your Search Based on Your Aims
Divide your topic into its components and provide synonyms for each of these topics. For example, research question on the best drug therapy for Lou Gehrig’s disease would need to include all of the other terms for the disease e.g.. ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and so on, as well as all of the various drugs to be studied.
Topic / Synonyms2
Population
Who is your population of concern? Are age (be specific), gender, nationality, race/ethnicity, occupation, SES, etc. a concern? Will you need to look through the veterinary literature?
Age: □ all □ under
□ over
□ between -
Gender: □ male □ female □ both
Race/Ethnicity: □ all □ African American □ Hispanic □ White □ other:
Humans only?: □ yes □ no, include animal studies but only if humans included □ no, only animal studies
Other:
Setting, geography, and locations
Does geography matter, i.e. will an article describing a study done in France be relevant when considered next to a study done in the US? Also, do you want to look only rural, urban, work, school, or other designations?
Setting
Educational institutions
□ All public schools
□ Elementary
□ Middle
□ High school
□ College
□ Other:
Occupations
□ Agricultural:
□ Industrial:
□ Medical:
□ Other:
Other
Geography
Countries (check all that apply)
□ All
□ United States
□ Developed countries
□ Developing countries
□ Other:
Types of areas
□ Cities/Urban □ Rural
□ Counties
□ States
□ Countries
□ Other:
Other designations
3
Types of publications to include
What types of articles can be included? Original research only? What types of publications can be included? Published only? Dissertations, theses, newspaper articles, conference proceedings, etc could be searched as well.
Original research only: □ yes □ no, check all that apply below
Peer reviewed only: □ yes □ no, check all that apply below
□ Comment, editorial, letter
□ Literature review
□ Other:
Journal articles only: □ yes □ no, check all that apply below
□ Books/ book chapters
□ Conference proceedings
□ Dissertations/Theses
□ Newspaper/magazine articles
□ Research in progress
□ Other:
Languages
What languages are you willing to include?
English Only: □ Yes □ No, also include:
Years
How many years of literature do you want to include? How many are relevant?
Years: □ all possible □ before
□ after
□ between -
Types of studies
What type of study would best answer the research question? Controlled trials only? Case control, cohort, etc?
Types of studies: □ All possible □ check all that apply below
□□ / Control Trial
Randomized Controlled Trial / □
□ / Evaluation studies
Program Evaluation
□ / Case-control studies / □ / Intervention studies
□ / Retrospective / □ / Cost-Benefit Analyses
□ / Cohort studies / □ / Guidelines
□ / Longitudinal studies / □ / Qualitative studies
□ / Follow-up studies / □ / Reviews/Meta analysis
□ / Prevalence Studies / □ / Other:
□ / Cross-sectional studies / 4
Suggested Databases and resources
(to be completed by a librarian)
Original research databases (Note: be sure to check gray literature dbs as well)
All medical fields
□ Medline (Ovid)
□ PubMed
Nursing/Allied Health
□ CINAHL (EBSCOhost)
□ Health Source: Nursing/Academic
(EBSCOhost)
Behavioral Sciences and Education
□ PsycINFO (Ovid)
□ ERIC (EBSCOhost)
Sociology and Anthropology
□ Anthropological Index Online (Royal Anthro- pological Inst)
□ POPLINE (John Hopkins)
□ Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
Other types
Environmental
□ Agricola (EBSCOhost)
□ Environmental Universe (LexisNexis)
□ TOXNET (National Library of Medicine)
□ CCinfoWeb
Legal
□ Academic Universe (LexisNexis)
Statistics
□ Current Index to Statistics (Amer Stat Assoc)
Economics
□ EconLit (OCLC FirstSearch)
□ RePEc: Research Papers in Economics
General
□ Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
Pearling databases
Use these databases to search for articles that cited or are cited by articles that have made it into the review.
□ Scopus (Elsevier)
□ Web of Science (ISI)
Books/ book chapters
□ Netlibrary (OCLC)
□ Google Books
□ WorldCat (OCLC)
□ Other:
Dissertations/Theses
□ Digital Dissertations (ProQuest)
Research in progress
□ ClinicalTrials.gov
Other:
Newspaper/magazine articles
□ InfoTrac Newspapers (Gales)
□ Newspaper Source (EBSCOhost)
Gray Literature (items that don’t appear in tra- ditional databases—working reports, govern- ment docs, etc.)
□ Grey Literature Collection (NY Acad of Medicine)
□ Resource Guide for PH Preparedness (NY Acad of
Medicine)
□ NBER (Nat’l Bureau of Economic Research)
□ PAIS International (CSA)
□ GPO Catalog of US Gov’t Pubs (USGPO)
□ Google Scholar
Conference proceedings
□ NLM Gateway– meeting abstracts
5
Venn Diagram Demonstrating How Searches Are Combined
(to be completed by a librarian)
Search terms for
Concept 1:
Search terms for
Concept 2:
Search terms for
Concept 3:
1.2.2 What is a systematic review?
A systematic review attempts to collate all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. It uses explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view to mini- mizing bias, thus providing more reliable findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made (Antman 1992, Oxman 1993). The key characteristics of a systematic review are:
a clearly stated set of objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies;
an explicit, reproducible methodology;
a systematic search that attempts to identify all studies that would meet the eligibility criteria;
an assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies, for example through the assess- ment of risk of bias; and
a systematic presentation, and synthesis, of the characteristics and findings of the included studies.
Many systematic reviews contain meta-analyses. Meta-analysis is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies (Glass 1976). By combining information from all relevant studies, meta- analyses can provide more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included within a review (see Chapter 9, Section 9.1.3). They also facilitate investigations of the consis- tency of evidence across studies, and the exploration of differences across studies.
Higgins JPT, Green S (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 5.0.2 [updated September 2009]. The Cochrane Collaboration, 2009. Available from www.cochrane-handbook.org.
6