Conducting a systematic literature review

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Conducting a systematic literature review
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What is a systematic review?

• Comprehensive search of all potentially relevant
  articles and research on a subject
• Uses a set of reproducible search criteria
• Aims to minimise bias
• Search can be followed exactly and re-run at a
  later date

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How can the Library help?

• assistance with formulating your search
• identification of appropriate resources to search
  
• access to bibliographic databases on- and
  off-campus
• evaluating your search
• saving your search and references

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Formulating your question

• Your subject must be clearly framed
• Consider the facets of the review
• Population who is being studied?
• Interventions drugs, surgery etc
• Outcomes clinical, economic etc
• Study design randomised controlled trials etc

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Defining search terms

• Synonyms are there other terms with the same or
  similar meaning?
• Spellings differences in spelling can affect
  the outcome of the search
• Use medical encyclopaedia and dictionaries to
  help define your search terms

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Truncation

• Used at the end of a term
• Retrieves alternative word endings
• Symbols vary between databases
• OVID uses
• Web of Science uses
• eg in OVID, adolescen will find adolescent,
  adolescents, adolescence

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Wildcards

• Use to represent one or no characters
• OVID uses ?
• Web of Knowledge uses
• eg in OVID, wom?n would find women or woman

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Combining search terms

• Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT
• AND all search terms must be retrieved
• OR any of the search terms can be retrieved
• NOT excludes records containing a given search
  term

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• AND
• Breast cancer AND surgery AND risk reduction
• OR
• Genetic disease OR genetic mutation
• NOT
• X-linked carriers NOT rickets

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Limits

• Most databases allow you to limit your search
• Language
• Type of publication
• Age group
• Gender
• Species
• Remember to be consistent across databases

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Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

• Used by Medline, Cochrane Library and other
  medical databases
• Hierarchical structure using controlled language
• Can help you find the right term for your
  search
• Searches can be combination of free-text and
  subject index terms

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Refining your search

• Too many references
• Use narrower terms
• Add another facet to the search
• Search subject headings only, not free-text
• Limit search terms to specific fields eg title,
  abstract
• Apply limits to the search if appropriate

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Refining your search

• Too few references
• Use broader terms if appropriate
• Search for synonyms
• Try truncation and wildcards
• Remove search facets that are not essential
• Remove any limits applied to the search

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Cited reference search

• Can be good way of finding references that do not
  appear in original search results
• Shows which other articles cited a piece of
  research
• Available on OVID databases and Web of Knowledge
• Useful when you find a highly-relevant reference

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Identifying sources

• Library website
• Key databases Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL
  etc
• Cochrane Library
• Zetoc conference proceedings
• Dissertations and theses
• Internet gateways eg Intute
• Grey literature

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Saving searches

• Some databases (including OVID and Web of
  Knowledge) allow you to save your search and
  re-run it at intervals
• Useful way of keeping your search up-to-date
• Alerts will notify you when new articles matching
  your search are added

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Managing your references

• EndNote and other reference manager packages can
  help you store, retrieve and format references
  quickly and easily
• Use to insert citations and bibliographic
  references
• Being able to cite all of your reading is
  essential

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Databases for research

• OVID databases Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL
  etc
• ISI Web of Knowledge
• Specialist databases
• Cochrane Library database of systematic reviews
• ZETOC British Library current awareness service
  for conference papers and journals
• Index to Theses and Digital Dissertations

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Internet sites

• National Research Register record of research
  initiatives in the NHS
• www.nrr.nhs.uk/search.htm
• Pubmed free version of Medline
• www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
• TRIP evidence-based medical information
• www.tripdatabase.com/index.html
• Intute health and life sciences gateway
• www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences

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Further reading

• University of York, NHS Centre for Reviews
  Dissemination, Khan KS. Undertaking systematic
  reviews of research on effectiveness CRD's
  guidance for those carrying out or commissioning
  reviews. 2nd. ed. York NHS Centre for Reviews
  and Dissemination 2001.
• www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/report4.htm

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Steven McIndoe Academic Liaison Librarian,
Medicine steven.mcindoe_at_manchester.ac.uk Tel
0161 275 8730