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Guidance for systematic reviews

This guide aims to round up the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) on conducting systematic reviews

LibSmart II's Literature Searching for Systematic Reviews

Literature Searching for Systematic Reviews is a module on Learn's LibSmart II course and is designed to provide guidance on what literature searching methods are relevant for robust systematic reviews.

Information about how to enrol on LibSmart II

Literature Searching for Systematic Reviews content:

  1. What is a systematic review?
  2. Why are you doing a literature review?
  3. Wait! Where's your protocol?
  4. Draft your search plan.
  5. Reporting search methods.
  6. Building complex searches for systematic reviews.
  7. Mapping your research question.
  8. Translating searches between databases.
  9. Moving between databases: what needs to be translated?
  10. Testing your search for relevance and quality.
  11. Managing search results.
  12. Methods guidance and tools.

Recommended Training

  1. LibSmart: If you don't have any experience in systematic reviews, you can take some online courses provided by the University of Edinburgh and many organisations. We recommend you take a course called LibSmart, developed by the Academic Support Librarians (ASL) team. It is easy to enrol the course on Learn. 
  2. A guide for students by Boland et al. (2017): This guide is written by an expert team of authors with years of experience in conducting systematic reviews and supervising students doing systematic reviews. This book is an excellent roadmap to guide you through the process.
  3. Cochrane Interactive Learning: This training is good for self-learning at all stages of the review process.
  4. Usher Network for COVid-19 Evidence Reviews: Literature searching