Systematic Reviews

Scott librarians from the Information Services team are committed to guiding you through the rigorous process of creating a publishable systematic review. We offer two options: free consultations and fee-based mediated systematic review literature searching by librarians. 

Attach your Systematic Review Consultation Form to the request and any materials to provide additional context, which will assist the librarian to better prepare and provide feedback during the meeting. 

The first option offers free consultations on the following topics but the librarian does not perform the literature search.

• Consultation to review the systematic review process
• Development of an effective research question
• Discuss search term selection
• Recommend databases to include in the search
• Review your search strategies
• Provide instruction on advanced database searching techniques
• Provide instruction on the use of citation management software (creating RefWorks databases, etc.) for organizing retrieved references

The second option includes the free consultation plus expert searching by our librarians.

The Information Services team of librarians uses established guidelines when advising research teams about the systematic review process. The following points are a guide to understanding the librarian’s involvement:

• Accepts requests from faculty, staff, Jefferson residents and fellows. Student projects will only be supported as free consultations
• Schedules initial consultation to review the systematic review process using Systematic Review guide
  • Discusses protocol development and registration (a protocol will be required before the search)
  • Reviews proposed timetable for completion of the review
• Runs preliminary search
  • Determines scope of literature
  • Decision on tier 1 or tier 2 pricing provided and agreed upon
• Attends research team meetings as needed to be kept informed on progress of project
• Performs literature search with guidance from team
  • Provides comments and seeks clarification on team’s list of keywords and sample articles
  • Guides the selection of core recommended databases
  • Informs about grey literature options with searching done by team and not by librarian
  • Meets periodically with research team following revision(s) of strategy until final strategy is agreed upon
  • Seeks peer review of search strategy from librarian team
  • Requests agreement from entire team on final search strategy to be submitted with manuscript to publisher
  • Informs team about resources used, number of search results, and any additional information
• Assists with writing protocol and methodology section if requested
• Accepts or declines offer of acknowledgement or authorship deemed appropriate by research team and journal guidelines

Fee structure for librarian services following initial consultation:

• Estimated following preliminary searching to determine scope of project
• Tier 1 – Basic (minimum): 20 hours, $1500
• Tier 2 – Advanced: > 20 hours, $75/hour

Protocol changes after the start of literature searching may incur additional costs.

Article (full text) retrieval and de-duplication of search results are not included. Interlibrary loan service may require additional fees for obtaining dissertations and articles.

Librarian will update the literature search upon request prior to manuscript submission at no additional cost.

Protocol: The Preplanned Systematic Review Methodology

The development of the protocol is an important step before embarking on a systematic review, as it provides the framework from which authors collaborate and proceed through the decision-making process and if published, imparts transparency.

A comprehensive protocol helps the Information Services librarian working with the systematic review team construct informed search strategies. Both the systematic review team and the librarian will mutually agree that the required protocol meets a sufficient level of comprehensiveness before the database searching is initiated.