Systematic and Scoping Reviews: Start Here

We offer a variety of resources and services that can assist you through your systematic or scoping review project. Each page of the 7 step process, as detailed through the pages to the left, will include a box with more information on how we can help. Here is a preview of what we offer:

• Training on conducting a systematic review
• Research topic exploration
• Research topic feasibility check
• Formulating the search strategy
• Documenting the search
• Covidence
• EndNote
• Full text links or interlibrary loan
• Manuscript preparation

• Librarians will not provide search strings for reviews that have already been previously conducted (e.g., you ran your own searches, analyzed results, and now need string strings for publication). 
• Searches can take 3-4 weeks to complete, depending on the response time of the team and the complexity of the topic. Your timeframe must be feasible with this process.
• If your systematic review is for a course or summer assignment, please let us know when you submit the form. Due to increased demand for this service, we may advise you on the conduct of your own search, since we may be unable to conduct a full search and provide results in a tight turnaround.
• A primary researcher must be affiliated with Henry Ford.
• We will only perform one systematic review search per patron/team at a time. 
• For a systematic review, you must have a team with a minimum of two active members, preferably more. For scoping reviews, while it is possible to do one solo, it is not recommended. The PI, senior staff member, or content expert on the team must attend the initial kickoff call.
• You must be open to refining your research question with your librarian if it is too broad.
• We request acknowledgement, and will consider authorship if the level of involvement is deemed appropriate.
• Librarians do not provide the full text of articles with your search results. We will advise on ways to utilize library resources for obtaining full text, such as LibKey Nomad, the Find it at Sladen button or interlibrary loan (ILLiad), and that should be a workflow consideration built into the timeline for your systematic review team.
• Librarians can point you to resources, but do not assist with critical appraisal of studies or citation screening. 

Upon submitting your request, a librarian may contact you with some initial questions about your team, project or topic. This is generally an informal call to address any concerns or questions that arose from an initial search of your topic, or to get additional clarification about your project or team.

Your project will go into a queue, and after examining workloads and availability, will be assigned to two librarians to collaborate on this review with you. The lead librarian librarian on your project will coordinate to schedule a meeting with you and your team members. The PI, senior staff member, or content expert on the team must attend the initial kickoff call.

In the official project kickoff meeting, you will:

• Clarify your topic, team, and address any questions that arose from an initial search of your topic.
• Review your team's SR experience, and familiarity with PRISMA and protocol development
• Establish which databases will be searched and if any grey literature will be included
• Decide whether your search will include any restrictions (e.g., dates, language, publication types) and the reasons for these decisions. 
• Agree on a timetable for search completion and result delivery. 
• Explore using Covidence to manage and track your review process. 
• Discuss target journals for article submission and review their requirements.