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Systematic reviews

Are you planning to write a systematic review?

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Systematic reviews and scoping reviews demand a comprehensive literature search and thorough documentation and reporting. A systematic review usually takes a year or more to execute. If you desire support from the library, it is best you contact us early on in the process.

The library offers support to PhD candidates and employees at the Faculty of Medicine as well as to employees at Helse Bergen. For students writing literature reviews, courses in literature search and reference management are provided as a part of their studies. 

The medical library can help you with:

  • Searching for systematic reviews on your topic, either finished or in progress
  • Recommending relevant databases and other resources
  • Creating a search strategy
  • Adapting a search strategy to various databases for an exhaustive literature search
  • Documenting the search strategies
  • Updating searches before publishing
  • Transferring and managing references in EndNote
  • Propose tools and checklists for screening and quality assessment
  • Complying to protocol and reporting standards

In your systematic review project, a librarian may assist you in two ways - either as a consultant or a co-author.

As a consultant, a librarian can guide you in all the parts mentioned above. The librarian may also perform some or all parts of the literature search. As a co-author, the librarian additionally contributes to the methods section and appendix of the article in order to guarantee a clear and transparent description of the search process.

Preparations for your systematic review

You ought to be familiar with the process of writing a systematic review and its standards. Cochrane Interactive Learning (Module 1) offers a short introduction to systematic reviews. This module is available for free, but requires registration of a Cochrane account.

You may register for the introductory course to "Systematic reviews" which you find at the Medical Libray' course calender  

Contact us

Contact us for scheduling an appointment when you are about to start a systematic review or scoping review. For both, an exhaustive literature search is necessary. We ask you to give us a short feedback of how far you have come in the review process in order to provide optimal assistance.

Fill out the form to make a guidance appointment for a systematic review