Systematic Reviews & Expert Reviews

  Screening Your Results 

In order to screen your results, it is recommended that you use both a citation management tool and a systematic review screening tool. This process of screening and selecting articles for inclusion is documented via a PRISMA Flow Diagram.

1. Add your results to a citation manager (i.e., Zotero).
2. Removed duplicates from your results. Make sure to save these duplicates, as you will need to document TOTAL number of results and number of duplicates in your PRISMA diagram.
3. Export your de-duped citations to a screening tool (i.e., Rayyan).
4. Screen abstracts / titles, using your inclusion and exclusion criteria. This process should include two independent reviewers who come to an agreement on which articles move on to the next stage of the screening process. If there are dissenting opinions, a third reviewer will be consulted.
5. Find full-text of relevant articles.
6. Screen full-text of remaining articles. For articles not chosen at this stage, document reasons for exclusion on your PRISMA diagram.

KEY TOOLS

  Citation Management Tools

Citation managers help you to easily manage your research. Finding a great research article is one thing, but quickly finding it in the labyrinth of your computer is a completely different beast. Citation managers not only allow you to organize your resources so you can quickly find articles for the project you are working on, but they help you create citations for your paper.

The Foley Library recommends the free software Zotero to keep track and easily cite resources. Zotero integrate with Microsoft Word, allowing you to quickly insert citations into your paper as you write it. It will even create a bibliography for you!

Watch this <3 minute video to see some of Zotero’s best features in action.

  Screening Tools

There are a number of tools that will make screening and selecting articles for a systematic review easier. A few include: