Systematic Reviews & Evidence Based Reviews

Indiana University Bloomington’s Evidence Synthesis Service:

The Indiana University Bloomington Libraries provides Evidence Synthesis support to current IU Bloomington students, researchers, faculty, and staff. Evidence Synthesis includes methods such as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, mapping reviews, rapid reviews, and other systematic approaches to literature searching. Librarians have expertise in creating complex searches, data management, writing the methodology section, and more.

Systematic reviews with librarian co-authors have higher reproducibility, higher quality search strategies, improved documentation reporting, and better meet reporting standards (Rethlefsen et al, 2015).

Librarians can work with you on your systematic review or your evidence-based synthesis as consultant, a facilitator, or a co-author:

Roles of Librarians

As a consultant, the librarian will:

• provide background information and resources on the evidence synthesis process,
• recommend databases, tools, and resources, and
• suggest edits for your search strategy.

This option is limited to approximately four hours of librarian time, or between two and three meetings.

As a facilitator, the librarian will:

• advise on review type,
• walk you through how to create a search strategy using best practices,
• suggest edits for your search strategy,
• provide guidance on translating a search string for use in different databases, and
• advise on tools for citation management and project management.

This option requires acknowledgement in your final manuscript. This option allows for more granular guidance from our search experts, but not to exceed approximately 8 hours of work.

As a co-author, the librarian takes on the full responsibility of authorship, including reviewing the final manuscript, and will additionally:

• provide several, ongoing consultations as needed with the research team,
• advise on review type, protocol development, and tools for citation management and project management,
• develop and run comprehensive search strategies according to best practices,
• document and manage search results,
• perform document retrieval, and
• write the methods section of the final manuscript according to PRISMA guidelines or other appropriate standards.  

Due to the large time commitment necessary for co-authorship, librarians at IUB have limited capacity for this level of involvement. We also require co-authors read and agree to our MOU. Please contact us if you are interested in pursuing a co-authorship model.

Interested in pursuing a systematic review or evidence synthesis project? Fill out this form.

Please be advised that due to staff availability, the number of requests, and the large time commitment required, there may be a delay before a librarian is ready to start working on your project.

[Consultant, Facilitator, & Co-author information from Ruth Lilly Medical Library, Systematic Reviews and other Evidence Syntheses]