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Systematic Reviews: Collaborate with a Librarian

Roles of Librarians in Systematic Reviews

Studies show that librarian involvement in systematic reviews improves the quality and reproducibility of the literature search (Rethlefsen et al., 2015).  

  • It is recommended that you ask for librarian involvement early on in the process. 
  • Developing and running search strategies may take a month or longer. 
  • There may be a waitlist for librarian assistance.
  • Please contact us well in advance of any deadlines so that we may coordinate librarian workloads.

Services Provided

Basic Service

  • Provide consultation on SR process and guidelines
  • Meet 2-3 times to discuss the process
  • Give advice on identifying controlled vocabulary and keywords
  • Advise on databases and keywords
  • Suggest tools and resources

Advanced Service

  • Join Review Team in membership capacity, including librarian participation at project meetings
  • Identify, conduct, and document the search methodology in accordance with established guidelines
  • Provide significant contributions to methods section of the final systematic review manuscript
  • Suggest tools and resources for each stage of the SR and train review team in use as necessary
  • Co-authorship for librarians required

Page References

Rethlefsen ML, Farrell AM, Osterhaus Trzasko LC, Brigham TJ. Librarian co-authors correlated with higher quality reported search strategies in general internal medicine systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol. 2015;68(6):617-626. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.11.025