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This guide focuses on the process for finding studies to include in systematic and scoping reviews and Health Technology Assessments (HTAs). For guidance regarding preparation of a review, visit the Preparing for a Comprehensive Literature Review guide.
- Online Tutorial: Systematic SearchingSearching to Support Systematic, Scoping, and Other Types of Reviews.
Tutorial covers the full process of creating a systematic search for an evidence synthesis project - Librarian Support for Comprehensive ReviewsAre you planning a comprehensive review (systematic, scoping, literature review)? University of Alberta librarians will help you get started. This link describes services available.
Searching Process
The process of searching for studies to include in a Systematic Review, Scoping Review, or Health Technology Assessments (HTAs) may include:
- Checking previously published Systematic Reviews, Scoping Reviews, and HTAs to determine if your question has already been answered.
- Conduct searches for primary studies in multiple bibliographic databases (e.g. Medline, CINAHL and Scopus).
- Scan reference lists of relevant articles, including articles selected for the review, as well as relevant review articles.
- Check who has cited relevant articles using tools such as Google Scholar, Scopus, or Web of Science.
- Depending on your topic, you will need to search the Grey Literature such as
- Clinical trial registries
- Meeting abstracts and conference proceedings
- Clinical Practice Guidelines
- Theses and Dissertations
- Government Documents
- Institute / Association Websites (e.g. Institute of Health Economics, National Institute for Clinical Excellence, Conference Board of Canada)
- Contact, if necessary
- Authors of Relevant Articles and Reviews
- Principle investigators of ongoing studies
- Pharmaceutical Companies
- Web search engines such as Google
Tools
- CovidenceCovidence is a web-based systematic review manager that provides a platform for importing and independent screening of article records. The software supports the use of customized forms for risk of bias assessment and data extraction and exporting of references and data.
- SR Polyglot Search The Polyglot Search Translator or simply, the Polyglot, is designed to translate search strings across databases to aid with running searches for systematic reviews. The Polyglot translates either a PubMed or Ovid MEDLINE search string into the following database platforms; the Cochrane Library; Embase (via Elsevier); Web of Science; Scopus; EBSCO (e.g. CINAHL); Ovid (e.g. PsycINFO or Embase via Ovid) and PubMed.
Guides and Worksheets
Refining the question
- PICO Form: Well-Built Clinical Question This form is used as a method of parsing a research question, usually clinical/intervention, into the important concepts, Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcomes. Other versions exist for other kinds of questions.
- Defining Concepts in Your Search (Circles Diagram) This form is designed to help visualize the concepts in a search question and how the Boolean operators (AND, OR) are used to create the structure search strategy
Database search tips
- Syntax Guide for Various Databases This chart lists common database functions and the syntax required to execute them in different databases
- Translating a Search Between Databases To avoid bias, comprehensive reviews require that a search is run in several databases. A search constructed for one database will not run accurately or take best advantage of the features of another database. This document describes how to adjust a search constructed in one database so that it will run correctly in another database.
- Useful Tips for Searching in Common Database Platforms This chart shows database functions that vary from platform to platform
- Updating Comprehensive Searches In review publications, which rely on database searches as their data source, it is good practice to keep the data current by re-executing the search and adding the new references. This document describes the update processes for various platforms
Preparing for publication
- PRISMA for Searches (PRISMA-S) The PRISMA-S checklist helps researchers identify where in their publication they have documented specific information about their search methods. The checklist is available as a PDF, WORD or Excel document.
- PRESS Checklist (Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies) The PRESS Checklist is used to review search strategies to identify areas for improvement.
Systematic / Scoping Review Registry
- OSF Registries (for scoping review protocol deposit) OSF Registries be used as a place to deposit a scoping review protocol )
- ERA (Education & Research Archive) (for scoping review protocol deposit)U of A's Institutional Repository