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Systematic Review Service

Service is available for Dartmouth and DHMC (Lebanon) researchers (faculty, staff, or students). Timeframe for completion of systematic review services varies depending on the research question and the current schedule of systematic review projects, though typically searches may take up to 6 months to complete after the initial consultation. Service capacity is limited and reviews are undertaken on a first come, first served basis (unless they are funded – see Tier 3).

Initial Consultation with a Librarian

Before selecting a service tier, meet with a librarian to discuss your research and what type of review might best address your question. A systematic review may be appropriate, but a librarian will also discuss scoping, narrative, literature, and other types of reviews. We can assist with these other types of reviews as well.

You can request an initial consultation here.

Once you have decided to pursue a systematic review, we offer three tiers of service.

Tier 1: Consultation and Training

A librarian can consult and/or train about different aspects of conducting a systematic review. This level of consultation or training typically includes 1-2 meetings or team training sessions.

Consultation

  • Help formulate the research question
  • Verify question has not recently been addressed in a published systematic review
  • Advise on reporting standards and best practices (e.g. PRISMA Guidelines, Cochrane, IOM etc.)
  • Advise on database selection
  • Provide feedback on your search strategy
  • Discuss software tools for organizing systematic reviews

Training

  • Perform a reproducible, comprehensive, documented search using multiple databases
  • Use of citation management and screening tools for systematic review
  • Obtain full-text of published papers

Peer Review of Search

  • Librarian provides peer review of existing search strategy
  • Librarian receives acknowledgement in final publication

Tier 2: Partnership

A librarian team (two librarians) joins your systematic review as subject experts in search methodology. The following services constitute a major contribution to the review for which the librarians are named as co-authors.

Searching

  • Identify relevant databases to search
  • Identify keywords and subject headings
  • Develop reproducible, comprehensive search strategies
  • Translate strategies for each database
  • Conduct searches in multiple databases
  • Export results to citation management tool, including removal of duplicate records
  • Document search result numbers for PRISMA flow chart and archive search strategies
  • Peer review of search strategy

Methodology

  • Write Methods section, describing the search strategy and its execution
  • Provide appendix with search strategy from all included databases

Tier 3: Funded Partnership

A librarian team (two librarians) joins your systematic review as subject experts in search methodology and hours are paid to the library as part of grant, department, or other funding. Please contact us to discuss costs and FTE prior to submitting your budget. We cannot guarantee space in our schedule or that work will be conducted within a specified number of hours if your budget has been set without prior consultation.

These services constitute a major contribution to the review for which the librarians are named as co-authors.

This tier includes all Searching and Methodology services from Tier 2 in addition to priority scheduling and dedicated librarian time for your project. Depending on the project, negotiation of additional services may also include:

  • De-duplication of results
  • Assistance with screening of results
  • Assistance with data extraction

Please submit questions and inquiries about the systematic review service through this form.