Evidence Synthesis

1. Use of Recommended Search Strategies in Systematic Reviews and the Impact of Librarian Involvement: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Recent Authors (Koffel, 2015) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125931 
2. Ensuring quality as the basis of evidence synthesis: leveraging information specialists' knowledge, skills, and expertise (Metzendorf & Featherstone, 2018) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.ED000125
    

Librarians can assist you with selecting databases and search strategies for your synthesis project based on your research question. Each database is different and will require a different search syntax. Some databases have controlled vocabulary and thesauri that you will want to incorporate into your searches. We recommend creating one master search strategy and then translating it for each database. 

It is important to document your search when conducting a review for transparency and reproducibility. Consider creating personal accounts in individual databases so that you can save your search history.

Save and document the following:

• Exact search strategies used in every database, search engine, or other resource
• The date you ran each search
• Any limiters or filters used
• The number of results exported (we recommend a citation management software)
• The number of results remaining after deduplication