syst rev find_evi_slideshare_nov2015

Systematic reviews:finding the evidence

St. George’s LibrarySt George’s, University of London

Library Services, Information Services Find out more, visit http://library.sgul.ac.uk

2May 3, 2023

Learning outcomes• Overview of systematic reviews• Focusing your question• Drawing up your strategy

• Know where to look for information• Systematically searching for relevant information

• Managing your information• Documenting your search process


What are systematic reviews?

• Transparently identify, assess, synthesize evidence

• Systematic and reliable

• Decision-making


6 stages of a systematic review

Library Services, Information Services

Find out more, visit http://library.sgul.ac.uk

1.Identifying research evidence

2. Selecting studies for inclusion

3. Data extraction of included studies

4. Quality assessment of included studies

5. Synthesis and analysis of results6. Dissemination of the review findings

Anatomy of a search strategy

#1 Accidents/ #2 exp Accidents, Traffic/ #3 exp Accident Prevention/ #4 exp Motorcycles/ #5 motor-cycl* or motorcycl* or motor-bik* or motorbik* or scooter* or moped* or moto* or motocycl* or motocicl* #6 trauma* or injur* or fatal* or accident* or crash* or prevent* or collide* or collision* #7 #1 or #2 or #3 or #4 or #5 or #6

#8 head near protect* #9 head near shield* #10 helmet* #11 exp Head Protective Devices/ #12 #8 or #9 or #10 or #11

#13 #7 and #12

Fail to plan, plan to fail


• Focus your question• Identify topics and

terms• Develop

inclusion/exclusion criteria

• Identify appropriate databases for your topic

Focused question?

Diabetes- in particular education…

”Is patient education effective in improving blood sugar control in teenage diabetics?

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Planning with PICOS

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Patient/Population Teenage diabeticsIntervention Patient educationComparison No treatment

Outcome Improved blood sugarStudy type Any

9May 3, 2023

Alternative, free-text terms


Patient/Population Teenage, teen, teenager, adolescentIntervention Patient education, patient information

health educationComparison No treatment

Outcome Blood sugar, blood glucose, hypoglycaemia, (hypoglycaemia), hyperglycaemia

Study type Any

Planning with PICOS

Alternatives to PICOS• PESTEL - Political, Economic, Social,

Technological, Environmental and Legal Factors

• SPICE – Setting, Population, Intervention, Comparison, Evaluation

• ECLIPS [management and service related issues] – Expectations, Client Group, Location, Impact, Professionals Involved, Service

• MIP [medical ethics review] – Methodology, May 3, 2023 10


Key healthcare databases

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• Medline• Embase• PsycINFO• CINAHL• Cochrane Central Register of

Controlled Trials• Web of Science• HMIC

Searching systematically

1. Using Boolean operators

2. Subject heading searching

3. Search tools – truncation, wildcard, adjacency

4. Refining and limiting


Boolean operators: combining your terms

AND OR OR.. is more, broadens• Antidepressant drugs OR

antidepressive agents

AND…narrows • Eating disorders AND

cognitive therapy





Search modes- 1. free-text

• Free text searching – Free text, keyword, or ‘natural language’ searching– Need to pick up variants– Where do you want to find your terms- abstract, title, anywhere?

• Search tools can help you make the most of free text searching– Truncation– Wildcards– Adjacency


Search tools-truncation

• Use the ‘truncation’ symbol, an asterisk * to find alternative word endings: symbols vary in databases

Treat* finds:

treatmenttreatmentstreatingtreated etc.

Can make a huge difference to numbers retrieved


Search tools- phrase searching

• Place phrases in “speech marks”

• Ensures terms appear together :

“antidepressant drug*”


Search tools- proximity searching

• ADJ(n)- (Ovid and NHS HDAS)

– Acute adj otitis media

• Nn- Ebsco (Cinahl)

– Middle ear N3 inflam*

• NEAR/# - (Web of science)– chronic NEAR/4 disease


Search modes 2 – subject headings

• Standardised terms

• Assigned by expert indexers (humans not machines!)

• Allows exploration of associated (broader, narrower and related) terms in subject tree

• Can help your search and avoid problems inherent in free text


Database filters• Cochrane Filterhttp://www.cochrane-handbook.org

• SIGN

http://www.sign.ac.uk/methodology/filters.html

• The InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group Search Filter Resource

https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/issg-search-filters-resource/home

http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/

http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/

http://www.sign.ac.uk/methodology/filters.html




Other sources• Hand-searching Snowballing for papers via reference and citation

tracking (http://wos.mimas.ac.uk- SGUL subscription available)

• Contacting study authors, experts, manufacturers via mailing lists etc.

• Searching targeted internet resource, such as Google scholar, government, academic or industry websites,

• Searching conference proceedings• Searching dissertations and theses (http://ethos.bl.uk)• Searching national and international trials registers (

http://bit.ly/1FXPD2b)• Searching grey literature (http://www.opengrey.eu/ or HMIC

database)

http://wos.mimas.ac.uk-/

http://ethos.bl.uk/

http://bit.ly/1FXPD2b

http://www.opengrey.eu/


Managing references• Merge and de-duplicate search results using

bibliographic software (make a copy or keep record of how many de-duped)

• Examine titles and abstracts

• Best practice to retain evidence of what articles have been excluded and why, in line with your protocol

• Retrieve full text of potentially relevant article• Link together multiple reports


Obtaining documents• NHS ejournals list. Login with OpenAthens before you

search for your journal

• SGUL ejournals (only available onsite in the library for most NHS staff)

• Google scholar searches for Open Access articles or SGUL content

• Library Interlibrary loans department- request any article not available via above routes


Documenting the search• Databases and interfaces searched

• Dates- coverage and when search carried out

• Full detailed search strategies (copy and paste them or save down)

• Number of records received

• Details of other searches- conference proceedings etc.

• You’ll also need to specify your selection criteria

• Study Flow diagrams can help

24May 3, 2023

Library contactsResearch Enquiries DeskMon-Fri 11am-4pm Library 1st floor Hunter Wing

NHS Librarian

Karen John-Pierre020 8725 5433Ext [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

25May 3, 2023

Further help • CARES literature searching service

www.cares.sgul.ac.uk

• Training courses and one to one sessions – contact NHS librarian

• Help sheets on Library internet site: http://library.sgul.ac.uk/help

• Evidence based healthcare webpage


http://www.cares.sgul.ac.uk/

http://library.sgul.ac.uk/

http://www.sgul.ac.uk/about-st-georges/services/library/nhs-resources/evidence-based-healthcare

syst rev find_evi_slideshare_nov2015

Health & Medicine