Need help with a systematic review? Health Sciences Library experts and resources are here for you for all types of reviews, from critical reviews, to mapping reviews, to scoping studies, and more. The Claude Moore Liaison Librarians will assist you as you develop your research question and your conduct literature search. Both the Cochrane Collaboration and the Institute of Medicine recommend authors of systematic reviews work with librarians to identify the best possible evidence. Let us help you prepare your review with the best methods possible!

Guides, Manuals and Protocols

Guidelines and tools are available to assist you with the planning and workflow of your review.

• PRISMA provides a checklist, flow diagram, and other guidance for reporting
• AHRQ Methods Guide for Effectiveness and Comparative Effectiveness Reviews
• PROSPERO is a prospective registry of health-related systematic reviews 

Literature Searching

Our librarians are here to provide free, expert assistance with your literature search, including;

• Identifying databases and/or sources of published and un-published ("grey") literature on your topic
• Preparing and conducting literature searches, including identifying keywords and database-specific subject headings to ensure comprehensive retrieval
• Documenting and writing search methods for inclusion in your manuscript
• Exporting and managing your references

Contact us and we'll connect you with an expert searcher in your discipline.

Managing References

Collecting your citations is an important step in any review. Software and web-based tools assist with this process. All of the following tools have features to help with both formatting your in-text citations and your bibliography.

• RefWorks is UVA's site licensed tool. It's web-based which means you can access your collection of citations from anywhere.
• F1000 is another licensed tool that's a new favorite for many.
• EndNote is a powerful software tool for Windows or Mac, available at the discounted price of $119 via Cavalier Computers. It helps with collecting references as well as PDFs.
• Mendeley is free software (Windows and Mac) that allows easy sharing of citations and helps with collecting PDFs.
• Zotero is another free product and is especially feature-rich in terms of capturing citation information for web pages and other document types. 

Want help comparing these tools? See our Citation Managers guide.

Need help learning one of these tools? Contact us and we'll be happy to assist.

 Screening and Study Selection

Much of the work in a review involves managing the process of title and abstract screening and study selection. Fortunately there are tools that facilitate this process with features to import citations, screen titles and abstracts, etc.

• Rayyan is a free, Web-based tool
• Covidence is fee-based, but allows one free trial (with two reviewers)
• DistillerSR is very feature-rich. It's fee-based (and pricey), but does provide a free student version.

Want to learn more? Check out these resources:

Read more from this article comparing Covidence and Rayyan (Couban, 2016)

Another comparison of Covidence and Rayyan (Kellermeyer, 2018)

SR Toolbox - look up a tool to learn more, or, search by features you want the tool to support (e.g. data extraction).

To request assistance with your systematic review, contact us:

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