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Systematic Reviews (2+ people)

This guide will look at resources for conducting a systematic review (SR) of literature on a topic

Record Keeping

It's important to document every stage - even every step - of your systematic review journey.

Some texts (Booth et al., 2022, p.52) recommend keeping the equivalent of a lab book / project diary to record your search methods and progress (or lack of progress / roadblocks) for the duration of any review you're conducting. This will enable you to accurately write up your process without having to rely on your memory for the details. It also means that you have something to refer to when you want to refine your search strategy, and the information contained in the record will highlight any dead ends you encountered and so help you to avoid re-duplicating searches that don't / didn't work. Make sure that you record everything, with no gaps. Don't just record successful attempts - everything is valid and should be noted.

It doesn't have to be something you write by hand; working with other people as part of the SR team it would be more practical to have a shared, cloud-based resource where each team member can add information about the tasks they've completed. This way everyone can see where in the timeline the work currently sits, and also which elements need working on and so on.

Someone should also be nominated to take regular backups of the online content in the event of issues with the site or the files contained there.

 


Booth, A., Sutton, A., Clowes, M. & Martyn-St James, M. (2022) Systematic approaches to a successful literature review, 3rd edn. London: SAGE