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Systematic Reviews

This guide provides a step-by-step breakdown of how to conduct a systematic review and how librarians can assist in the process.

Documentation of searches

The PRISMA Flow Diagram provides transparency and allows for reproducibility of the systematic review. 

The PRISMA flow diagram visually summarizes the screening process. It initially records the number of articles found in each resource and then makes the selection process transparent by reporting on decisions made at various stages of the systematic review. The number of articles is recorded at each step of the screening process. When you're excluding articles at the full-text stage, it is important to include the reasons for exclusion.

Items to Document During the Search Process

Information Sources and Methods

  • Database name
  • Date of search and searcher's name
  • Study registries searches
  • Grey literature sources searched
  • Any other method used to find additional information, such as searching specific journals or citation chasing from specific articles

Search Strategies

  • Full search strings
  • Search limiters used (such as publication date range or language)
  • Updates to the search (such as redoing the search at a later date or using search alerts
  • Number of results retrieved from each search

Managing Records

  • How search results were organized
  • What reference managers or other tools were used
  • How results were de-duplicated

Citation Managers

Citation managers are tools that can help you stay organized during the searching stage of a systematic review. They can be used to

  • Keep track of pilot and test searches
  • Collect together all your searches from different databases
  • De-deduplicate your search results

Covidence

What is Covidence

  • a web-based screening and data extraction tool
  • Allows for bulk uploads of references and deduplication
  • Allows the team lead to assign members tasks
  • Inclusion and exclusion criteria are highlighted during the screening process
  • Allows for blinded, independent screening of title/abstract & full text
  • And much more!

Why Covidence?

  • Reduces bias in the screening process and improves validity of the review
  • Assists with deduplication
  • Provides data extraction

How do I get a Covidence account?

  • Please contact your liaison librarian (libmo@atsu.edu or libaz@atsu.edu)
  • Due to the limited number of accounts available, all requests for Covidence accounts will be screened for eligibility
  • Student assignments are not eligible for Covidence accounts. Free trial accounts are available for student use. 

Please see the Covidence Knowledge Base for tutorials and instructional articles and Covidence Academy for video tutorials.

Here is a short demo video to get you started

Please email libmo@atsu.edu or libaz@atsu.edu to request a Covidence account