Physiotherapy: Research Synthesis: Reviews

   Services                                                                                                         These are examples of the range of systematic review and scoping review services  for which you might contact your faculty librarian

Guidance for teams on the systematic review or scoping review process, especially in terms of the literature searching component to establish best practice
Guidance on appropriate Prisma statements and formulation of research questions/search strategies
Collaborate on formulating and revising the review protocol
Assistance on locating resources, such as systematic reviews and other information resources
Brainstorming alternative  terms and keywords
Reviewing and providing general feedback on search strategies
Creating  and running of search strategies and running initial searches in at least two databases
Assisting and advising on translating the search strategy into various resource interfaces
Peer-review of search strategies using the 2015 Evidence-Based Checklist
Advising, assistance, support  with selection and use of databases
Identifying appropriate grey literature sources
Conducting searches together with researchers in at least two databases
Tips on managing search results 
Instruction on use of Mendeley and other research tools
Tips for conducting Systematic reviews / Scoping reviews with Mendeley          

What can a student or academic expect in a consultation?                  

Appointments are generally one hour long

Please provide the following when you book the initial consultation with your faculty librarian. This will allow your librarian to prepare beforehand and assist you more effectively during the consultation:

One good research question - preferably already in the PICO or PICo-model for a systematic review and PCC-model for a scoping review

Research protocol (not essential for the first consultation of a scoping review)

Initial terms and keywords you are considering using.

List of databases you  are considering or have run initial search/es in and the number of results for each

Two or three key papers you expect to be included in the review

Discussion of  all/any of he above, our services and/or  any of the below.

Extent of librarian involvement, training and experience.

Scoping reviews serve as to establish the gap in pool of literature

All appropriate studies need to be found by means of a broad, focused scoping literature search.

Faculty librarians are experts in the efficient execution of the search and it is important to consult your librarian as early on as possible in the process.

The method requires a broad focused search strategy in more than two sources, with a three- step process. It includes the searching of grey literature in order to find all appropriate literature. See also the guidelines in the Prisma Statements, Cochrane Handbook and JBI Reviewer’s Handbook.

Evidence for the role of the Faculty librarian in the scoping review searches can be found in the publication Morris, Boruff and Gore (2016:347).

Our Faculty librarians with knowledge of information sources and the review process, provide one-to-one consultations to support students and staff undertaking reviews

Assistance and support for the literature search accordingly to ensure best  practice.

Assistance and support needed for the search strategy such as  training, guidelines, data requirements, subsidy-requests, open access publishing requests, bibliometric search requests, PICO's and adaptations thereof;

Search strategy construction, using.Boolean logic, appropriate search strategies and techniques  and tools.

Assistance on reference management

Assistance in finding the difficult to find full-text articles