Systematic Reviews and Evidence Syntheses: Help and training

Our outreach librarians and subject librarians have experience in collaborating with researchers and training individuals conducting systematic reviews. We can provide advice, support & training on:

• Scoping literature searches for review protocols
• Developing search strategies
• Peer reviewing search strategies using the PRESS checklist
• Using methodological search filters
• Selecting databases
• Identifying grey literature and on-going research
• Managing references
• Setting up search alerts
• Reporting search methodology

We can be involved in the following ways:

• As consultants we will give advice on search strategy development, database selection and reference management
• As coauthors we will collaborate with research groups, designing and running searches, managing the references, keeping records of the search process and writing the search methods for the final manuscript.

These roles are based on the ICMJE recommendations for defining authors and contributors.

Here is a list of recent reviews on which we've collaborated.

Collaboration on systematic reviews is dependent on service capacity and availability of librarians with relevant experience. We are receiving an increased number of requests for systematic review support, and may not be able to accommodate all requests for involvement.

We run regular iSkills workshops on searching, systematic review methods and reference management which are open to everyone within the University and OUH NHS Foundation Trust. Recordings and handouts from previous sessions are available online.