Why partner with a Medical Librarian? 

Studies show that librarian involvement in systematic reviews improves the quality and reproducibility of the literature search (Rethlefsen et al., 2015).

• It is recommended that you ask for librarian involvement early on in the process. 
• Developing and running search strategies may take a month or longer. 
• There may be a waitlist for librarian assistance.
• Please contact us well in advance of any deadlines so that we may coordinate librarian workloads.

Level 1: Consultant

• Meet 2-3 times to discuss the process
• Advise on databases and keywords
• Suggest tools and resources

Level 2: Facilitator

• Acknowledgement required
• May include multiple consultations
• Advise on review type, search terms, citation management, protocol development
• Suggest tools and resources

During a Level 2 evidence synthesis project, the librarian will provide instruction across multiple meetings (about 5-8 meetings) on the following topics:

• Protocol Development
• Database Searching
  • Subject headings
  • Keywords
  • Translations
• Gray Literature Searching
• Librarian Review of the Search Strategies
• Running and Documenting the Search
  • Exporting to Citation Manager
  • Importing to Covidence
  • Preparing the search strategies for publication

Note: Scheduling of Level 2 meetings is based on the researcher's completion of previous steps in the process. 

Level 3: Co-author

• Co-authorship required (see Memorandum of Understanding form)
• May include several consultations with research team
• Advise on review type, citation management, and protocol registration & development
• Develop and run search strategies, perform document retrieval
• Writing the methods section of final manuscript