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Image: The History of Private Search Engines by Christian Stewart |
Begin your search journey with a librarian!Librarians can recommend databases and other sources to search for a systematic review. Check Database Finder for a full list of available sources across all disciplines. Librarians can also help with designing complex searches using the specialized syntax of individual databases. Consult your subject librarian if you have questions. |
“The conduct of the search for and selection of evidence may have serious implications for patients’ and clinicians’ decisions. A systematic review might lead to the wrong conclusions and, ultimately, the wrong clinical recommendations.”
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Finding existing systematic reviewsSearching for existing systematic reviews on a topic related to your own research question can be a good place to start. These systematic reviews may provide a model for your own literature review, including recommended search strategies and resources. The following are links to online libraries of systematic reviews and evidence documents for health and other policy areas. |
Check the Search Strategy Used to Create the Systematic Reviews Subset on PubMed
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Appraising Systematic ReviewsJust because a review has been published as a "systematic review", it does not imply that the review was rigorous, reproducible or exhaustive. There are a number of criteria by which you can assess the quality of a systematic review. The following article summarizes 44 critical appraisal tools. Crowe, M., & Sheppard, L. (2011). A review of critical appraisal tools show they lack rigor: Alternative tool structure is proposed. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 64(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2010.02.008 |
Below are some common tools used for this purpose.
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Database SyntaxEvery database works differently. Consult with a librarian to 'translate' searches between databases. The link below provides guidance on searching across different platforms.
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In addition to subject databases found in the UMD Libraries' Database Finder list:
... consult the list of databases below for a more comprehensive search. |
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There are systematic reviews in many subject areas, such as education, social work, and even engineering, where different databases are appropriate and would yield very different conclusions. Some research is suggested below:
Education
Kinesiology
Sociology
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Regional databasesThis tab provides databases worldwide to find systematic reviews and other scholarly literature from national and international sources. |
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What is grey literature?Gray literature is defined by the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions as "...literature that is not formally published in sources such as books or journal articles." This can include information such as government reports, conference proceedings, graduate dissertations, unpublished clinical trials, and much more. * * * Document your searches using the CADTH Grey Matters checklist, p. 3. It is a MS Word document where you fill in the blanks to say which website you searched, when you searched it, etc. |
Duke University Medical Center Guide to Resource for Searching the Gray Literature - A more thorough guide to grey literature, including resources for trial registries, pharmacological studies, conference abstracts, government documents, and more.
Discovery and scholarly communication aspects of preprints - An article describing the classification, purposes, and criticisms of preprints, and provides a list of pre-print repositories.
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