Systematic Review & Scoping Review Support in the Health Sciences

This guide outlines the services and assistance that I can provide as you embark on a systematic review or scoping review. I am pleased to offer three levels of service depending on your needs, and these include

• consultation & training
• collaboration
• co-authorship

Consultation & Training

This level of support is available to all undergraduates, graduates, postdocs, and faculty members at Sargent College. Any of these services are a regular part of my job and are available anytime:

• provide you with tools and resources for learning about the process of researching and writing systematic reviews/scoping reviews/meta-analyses.
• assistance finding existing systematic reviews on your topic.
• selecting appropriate journal databases for your research question.
• help with identifying controlled vocabulary and keywords to optimize your search.
• instruction on performing advanced searches in databases.
• recommending sources of grey literature to supplement your research.
• training on the use of citation management software & Rayyon to help you manage your research.
• help setting up research alerts in online databases.

Collaboration

I offer to collaborate with faculty members and postdoctoral researchers on systematic reviews/scoping reviews/meta-analyses projects. Collaborative services include all the services outlined in the consultation & training section plus:

• providing you with keywords and a search syntax for each database.
• running searches in our databases.
• saving search results in Rayyon (or citation management software) and removing duplicate entries from the search.

I request that you acknowledge my assistance in your final publication. Here is an example of an acknowledgement:

Escher, A. A., McKinnon, S., & Berger, S. (2022). Effective interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice to address participation for adults with aphasia: A systematic review. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 85(2), 99-110.

Please note: Depending on the time of the semester, there may be brief waiting period for collaborative services, but I will always be glad to help you get started by providing consultation and training services.

Co-Authorship

I offer to serve as a contributing author to your evidence-synthesis. As a contributing author, I will provide all the services described at the collaborative level (see above), plus:

• assistance retrieving the full-text of articles.
• documenting the search strategy and results according to PRISMA Guidelines.
• authoring the methodology section of your review related to the search strategy.
• outlining the search strategy in the appendices of your publications.

Please note: my availability to serve as a co-author may depend on the time of the semester and the number of other projects I am involved in, but I will always be glad to provide all consultation and training services, and/or collaboration.