Research Guides: Systematic Reviews: Managing the Process

Academic Integrity Overview

LSU Academic Integrity Overview
Provided by the Office of Student Advocacy & Accountability, this online Moodle module is an overview of academic integrity and how to avoid academic misconduct at LSU. You can self-enroll in the module and you will receive a certification upon completion.
Using Information Ethically
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to (1) Define plagiarism and state how to avoid it and (2) Correctly cite quoted, paraphrased, or summarized sources of information.

When to Stop Searching and What's Next?

The hardest part of searching is knowing when to stop.

You can either:

1: Set a date to stop searching OR

2. Stop once you start to see the same articles over and over again.

Questions to Consider:

1. Have all the appropriate databases been identified and searched?

2. Have non-English language sources and grey literature been searched?

3. Have you modified the search strategy by adjusting search terms as you identified and exampined citations highly relevant to the topic?

4. How many unique or relevant citations were identified in the last 2 searches of databases, grey lit, or other sources?

After the Search

You will need to:

Evaluate the Results:
- Screen by title/abstract
- Select by full text
- appraise methods
Code the same info from each study
Explain and discuss results
Summarize in a report.

Managing the Process

Free Resources

CADIMA
CADIMA is a free web tool facilitating the conduct and assuring for the documentation of systematic reviews, systematic maps and further literature reviews.
Colandr
Colandr is an open access, machine-learning assisted tool for conducting evidence synthesis. This tool uses machine learning, natural language processing, and text-mining functions to partially automate finding relevant citations and extract desired data from PDF articles.
Rayyan
Rayyan is a free online tool that can be used for independent screening and coding of studies in a systematic review. Rayyan uses tagging and filtering to code and organize references
RevMan
RevMan is used by Cochrane reviewers to manage the data extraction and analysis process. It is a free tool that is geared toward Cochrane-like reviews.

Fee-Based Resources

DistillerSR
This tool is available with a monthly subscription fee.

DistillerSR is a popular tool for systematic review management. It allows for the management of the entire systematic review process with multiple independent reviewers.

ROBIS
ROBIS is a new tool for assessing the risk of bias in systematic reviews (rather than in primary studies). Here you can find the tool itself, information to help you complete a ROBIS assessment, and resources to help you present the results of your ROBIS assessment.

PIECES workbook
Excel is the most basic tool for the management of the screening and data extraction stages of the systematic review process. Customized workbooks and spreadsheets can be designed for the review process, and lists of references can be exported from citation managers into Excel format for screening. A more advanced approach to using Excel for this purpose is the PIECES approach, designed by a librarian at Texas A&M.

De-duplication of database search results for systematic reviews in EndNote
When conducting exhaustive searches for systematic reviews, information professionals search multiple databases with overlapping content. They typically remove duplicate records to reduce the reviewers’ workload associated with screening titles and abstracts; sometimes the reviewers remove the duplicates.This article describes a de-duplication method.

Bramer, W. M., Giustini, D., de Jonge, G. B., Holland, L., & Bekhuis, T. (2016). De-duplication of database search results for systematic reviews in EndNote. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 104(3), 240–243.

DO NOT USE MENDELEY FOR EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS.

Using Citation Management Software
Citation management software collects citations from various sources, organizes them, and compiles them into a bibliography or list of works cited. The software helps the user create citations in numerous different styles such as APA, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago. Includes instructions for using EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley.

Citation Management Tips

Once you've finished translating your search strategy to the syntax of each database you're searching, you will then:

1. Run the search in each database.

2. Export the results as a BibTeX, MEDLINE, RIS, or XML file and save those files.

3. Import those files into a citation management program.

Exporting Citations from PubMed to EndNote

1. In your search results, click “Send to” in the upper right corner of the page, then “File”.

2. Under “Format” select “MEDLINE” and “Create File”.

3. Save the MEDLINE.txt file to your desktop.

4. In Endnote, Go to “File” and “Import” and then select “Import Option – PubMed (NLM)” and choose the MEDLINE file from your desktop.

De-duplication

You will likely retrieve multiple versions of the same study as you search many databases and will need to de-duplicate your results before article screening. After you've performed your searches and imported the results into your citation management software:

In Endnote, from the menu select References -> "Find Duplicates". Select which duplicate record to keep by selecting "Keep This Record".
In Zotero, click on the "Duplicate Items" collection in your library. You can resolve duplicates by merging the files.
In Mendeley, select your folder of interest. Go to your Tools menu and select "Check for Duplicates". Select the details that you would like to keep from each of the documents. Click merge to create one entry containing the complete document details.
Covidence also automatically de-duplicates your results. Click here for more information about Covidence de-duplication.

Systematic Reviews: Managing the Process