Systematic Reviews and Health Technology Assessments - Searching the Literature

This is an asynchrolous version of the Introduction to Systematic Review Searching workshop that is offered by the John W.Scott Health Sciences Library.

This guide focuses on the searching for a systematic review.  For guidance regarding preparation of a review, visit the Preparing for a Comprehensive Literature Review guide.

Use the following steps when conducting a literature search for a systematic review:

1. Check previously published Systematic Reviews and Health Technology Assessments to determine if your question has already been answered or partially answered.
2. Conduct searches for primary studies in pre-appraised and unfiltered Electronic Databases. Use search filters to restrict your search to the study designs you are including in your report.
3. Also look for studies or documentation on adverse effects and patient safety.
4. Scan reference Lists of
   • relevant articles
   • relevant Systematic Reviews and Health Technology Assessments
5. Using the 'Cited Search' tool, check some of your included studies in Scopus and/or Web of Science
6. Contact, if necessary 
   • Authors of Relevant Articles and Reviews
   • Principle investigators of ongoing studies
   • Pharmaceutical Companies
   • Directories of Associations and Research Groups
   • Editors from relevant Cochrane Review Group and have them search their trials register
7. For ongoing studies search Clinical Trials Registers
8. Clinical Practice Guidelines contain both primary studies and systematic reviews
9. Handsearch relevant Journals and Scientific Meetings for conference abstracts or full manuscripts
10. Depending on your topic, you will need to search the Grey Literature such as
    • Meeting Abstracts and conference proceedings
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • Government Documents
    • Grey Literature Journals
11. Meta Search Engines give you a general idea of what you might find in the literature
12. Web search engines such as Google are good for topics that aren't well indexed in the published literature.