For AAU researchers
Reviews - tools & guides
For AAU researchers
Reviews - tools & guides
Before you get started, you will have to clarify what type of review you want to make. The different types of reviews have different requirements, and the type of review will have an impact on how the search is carried out. For example, scoping reviews often include searching for grey literature.
To ensure a systematic approach and overview, it is recommended to make a detailed plan for the review and to document along the way. Within the health sciences, a search protocol is often used to describe and document the search strategy in detail. A search protocol contains at minimum information about database selection, search terms, date of search, refinements (such as language and year of publication), and search results.
Create a systematic and transparent search process
- 1
Clarification of research questions
It is important that you know exactly what you want to investigate. The research question forms the basis of the further work and should therefore be well defined and clear.
If you are working with a clinical, health related question, it is recommended to use a PICO structure to define Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome.
It is also recommended to define inclusion - and exclusion - criteria in advance to help determine whether studies are suitable for inclusion in the review. - 2
Search
Select the most important keywords from the research question. The keywords should represent all aspects of what you want to examine in your review, and it is important to include synonyms and different word variations. In many reviews, a systematic literature search is carried out, where the search is set up according to the block search method. But the search can be carried out according to different methods.
The choice of databases and sources depends on the subject and on how extensive the search should be. As a starting point, all relevant databases and sources where relevant literature can be identified, should be searched.
A systematic literature search can be combined with other search methods, such as citation search, chain search, search of grey literature, and reference list checking. This minimizes the risk of missing relevant literature. - 3
Relevance assessment
When the search is satisfactory, it is a good idea to export and gather the search results from each database in order to remove duplicates across the databases. This can be done in a reference management system such as RefWorks, Mendeley or Endnote.
The next step is screening of articles. In this process it is determined whether the articles you found are relevant or not. There are several suitable tools for screening articles. - 4
Documentation
It is crucial that the search is documented and reported in detail. In principle, others should be able to reproduce the search. The search process is often reported in a Prisma Flow Diagram, which shows the information flow through the different phases of a systematic review and creates an overview of the search process.
When you document your search, it creates transparency and increases the quality of the review.