According to the Institute of Medicine Standards for Systematic Reviews (IMSSR), the systematic review team should work with a librarian during the three steps below. In addition to the standards outlined by the IMSSR, a librarian can help with numerous steps throughout the planning, conducting, and reporting phases of your systematic review. With our specialized knowledge of the systematic review process, we can save you time and confusion by providing guidance on the systematic review process and the best practices for many of the steps along the way, as well as actively helping to develop and refine your topic, create systematic literature searches of all relevant databases, search the grey literature, and provide information for your PRISMA figure and Methods section.
The librarians here at California State LA support the needs of the campus community in conducting systematic reviews, comparative effectiveness reviews, and meta-analyses. Services range from Tier 1 Services, including basic consultations and training, to Tier 2 Services with a high level of involvement.
In Tier 2, there is an expectation of authorship credit, grant funding, or the possibility of the librarian becoming involved as a review team member, depending on the level of involvement. Our services are free to the campus, but providing funding guarantees a librarian will devote a specific number of hours to contribute to your team.
Phase | Step | Tier 1 Services | Tier 2 Services |
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Planning | Topic Development |
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Development of Eligibility Criteria |
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Protocol Creation and Registration |
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Conducting | Searching for Studies |
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Study Selection |
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Data Extraction |
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Reporting | Writing / Publishing |
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Adapted from UNC Systematic Review Guide
Research shows that the methodological quality of systematic reviews improves when librarians are active members of the research team. Librarian participation in research teams results in:
Use of recommended search methods (Koffel, 2015)
Better reported search strategies​ (Bullers, Howard, Hansen, et al., 2018; Rethlefsen, Farrell, Osterhaus, Brigham, 2015)
Less bias (Aamodt, Huuderman, Strømme, 2019)
Contributions beyond just consulting on or developing a search (Bullers, Howard, Hansen, et al., 2018)
Credit to: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/systematic-reviews/library-help