The Systematic Review Service of the Cleveland Health Sciences Library (CHSL) supports the research missions of CWRU, including the School of Dental Medicine, the School of Medicine, and the School of Nursing. We support systematic review projects on a case-by-case basis as our time and resources allow. Please review the following guidelines about our services.
Who is eligible for the CHSL Systematic Review Service?
We prioritize services for:
CWRU Health Sciences faculty and clinicians
CWRU Health Sciences staff
CWRU Health Sciences doctoral students
Residents at University Hospitals, VA, and MetroHealth hospital
All CWRU faculty, staff and students are welcome to contact CHSL and request our assistance. However, it may be inappropriate for CHSL librarians to complete work for students given the nature of this learning environment.
* NOTICE *
Due to the time and expertise required, we do not recommend a student take on the role of principal investigator or lead author on a systematic review. Formal systematic reviews often require dozens to hundreds of hours of work that can span several months. Among other steps, the process includes creating the protocol, building and running a quality search, collecting all the papers, evaluating the studies that meet the inclusion criteria and extracting and analyzing the summary data. A systematic review requires subject expertise, statistical support, and a librarian to help design and run the searches.
Standard guidelines for carrying out systematic reviews recommend that at least two subject experts screen the studies identified in the search. To learn more about the systematic review methodology, read the information provided within this guide.
Our Systematic Review service offers varying degrees of support, ranging from consultative (education, guidance, and advice) to full team membership (co-authorship).
Guidance on preparation and planning
Guidance on protocol development and systematic review registration
Guidance on search standards and review guidelines
Advice on database and evidence source selection
Guidance on search strategy formulation and systematic searching
Guidance on tools and resources available to researchers
Librarians consult with your team and advise on areas as defined above. Because systematic reviews are a time-intensive team process that may take a year or longer, our team of librarians can support a limited number of reviews at any given time.
Participation in preparation and planning meetings
Assistance on protocol development and systematic review registration, including a scoping search for the protocol
Development of a search strategy that complies with search standards and review guidelines
Database and evidence source selection
Formulation of the search strategy for all databases and evidence sources
Systematic searching of all identified/agreed-upon evidence sources
Documentation of the search strategy, including sources searched, dates/times of searches, number of citations, and naming conventions, per PRIMSA
Citation management, including exporting all citations to citation management software, de-duplicating citations, and uploading citations to the agreed-upon systematic review tool (i.e. Covidence)
Finding/retrieving identified full text articles, as necessary
Writing the search methodology section of the final systematic review
Proof reading/editing final article as requested
CHSL Librarians will:
Discuss the importance of the protocol and systematic review registration
Discuss the scope of your research question and the systematic review process
Identify the information sources that may best answer your research question
Discuss the roles of team members
Create a timeline for your project
Outline and define the expected deliverables
|
Service |
Authorship |
Deliverables |
Workload |
|
Project Interview |
|
|
1-4 hours |
|
Formal Consultation |
Acknowledgement (Library & Librarian) |
|
5-6 hours |
|
Systematic Review Team Member |
Co-authorship (Library & Librarian)
|
|
10+ hours |
After reading the guidelines, if you would like to schedule a SR consultation with a CHSL librarian, complete the following form. Please answer as many questions as possible. If you are not performing a formal systematic review and would like help from a librarian, contact us at askCHSL@case.edu.
[LITERATURE & SYSTEMATIC REVIEW CONSULTATION INTAKE FORM]
The service is provided at no cost to the researcher. Time restrictions may impact service and response time.
Wait Time
Intake form submissions will be reviewed and responded to within 1-3 business days. You should expect a follow-up email and/or an invitation for an initial consultation within that time.
Based on the nature of the project and staff availability, it may be several weeks before we can meet with you and begin working on your project in depth.
Consultations are usually :30 - :60 minutes and follow-up consultations (in person, via email, Zoom or phone) may be necessary.
As we work with your team keep in mind that formulating the protocol, both the search strategy and the inclusion and exclusion criteria, can take several weeks up to 5 months for search protocol development (Cochrane).
