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DMSc Capstone Scoping Reviews

This guide has been prepared by the DMSc liaison librarian to answer common questions, provide resources, and help students as they conduct their capstone scoping review project.

FAQs About the Scoping Review Project

How many databases should I search?

For the purposes of this assignment, you should search in at least 3 databases to ensure you get a good, comprehensive search.

How many articles should I expect to find?

Unfortunately, there is no one answer to this question. As a scoping review reflects the state of the literature, different topics may return vastly different numbers of results. That being said, we recommend that you aim to keep your total results (across all databases) below 500 citations. This helps to keep your workload manageable and makes it so you are able to use the free trial of Covidence.

You may want to consider limiting to articles written in English and limiting to recent literature (such as in the last 10 years) if you need to reduce the number of results you are getting.

If your topic will require more than 500 citations, don't worry. Just reach out to your liaison librarian to discuss getting a paid version of Covidence.

How do I translate my PubMed search into different databases?

In a systematic search, you will need to keep the search as similar as possible between different databases. In practice, you should only need to change a few things for each database:

  • Applying consistent search limiters to each database
  • Searching the same fields in each database
  • Applying the controlled vocabulary of each database

In your capstone II course, you will be provided with a tutorial that will teach you how to translate searches between databases. 

You may want to consider Polyglot Search - a tool that will automatically translate searches between databases. Note that polyglot is not perfect, but it can help speed up the process and teach you the syntax of a new database.

How do I find and use MeSH terms in my search?

You will need to use the MeSH database to search for MeSH terms relevant to your subject. Then, you can add them to your search using the [mesh] field tag. MeSH terms should be placed in your search alongside other relevant keywords and synonyms.

Example: "physician assistant*"[tiab] OR "physician associate*"[tiab] OR "Physician Assistants"[mesh]

What software/tools should I use?

You can use a citation manager such as Zotero or Endnote to keep track of your articles and search results. Covidence is the recommended app to use for de-duplication, screening, and data extraction. Often, a simple word document is the best way to keep track of your search strategies and keywords.

What if I want to publish this scoping review in the future?

As you are not able to fully follow the scoping review methodology in this course (such as having 2 independent screeners), you will not be able to publish the scoping review as-is. That being said, much of the work of a scoping review such as developing your search strategy, choosing your databases, and finding grey literature will already be completed.

If you would like to turn this into a publishable work, you will need to re-run the searches and redo the screening and data extraction process with a team of at least 2 people, and rewrite the scoping review with the new results. 

Should I use Still OneSearch?

As Still OneSearch is unique to ATSU, using Still OneSearch does not follow the reproducible methodology of a scoping review. In addition, as Still OneSearch searches so many databases at once, it is not as proficient at searching them individually, and you will not be able to get the same kind of comprehensive results as you will from searching databases directly.

That being said, Still OneSearch can be helpful for testing our keywords, doing quick searches for background literature, or testing out the feasibility of a research topic.