Conduct systematic and scoping reviews - Nursing and Nurse Practitioners - Guides de recherche

Overview

There are lots of steps required when embarking in a systematic or scoping review. Familiarize yourself with them by:

Exploring the systematic or scoping review resources below, such as the worksheets to help with search strategy development and translation
Learning about Covidence, a software to help in organizing and managing knowledge synthesis projects
Consulting UOttawa's systematic review libguide

Best practices recommends that prior to developing a robust search strategy, all researches should have:

A protocol: According to PRISMA 2015, a protocol "...describes the rationale, hypothesis, and planned methods of the review." Consult the PRISMA-P protocol (for systematic reviews) or the PRISMA-ScR (for scoping reviews) checklist to see which items to include in a protocol.
Three to five target articles: Target articles are articles that should show up in the search results. Having these articles will:
- develop a robust search strategy and
- ensure that the review will not be an empty review

Systematic Reviews: guides, manuals and videos

If you are doing a scoping or systematic review, consult uOttawa's systematic review libguide for additional resources for each step.

Learn why systematic reviews are important and how they are done by watching the video below.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)
PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The PRISMA 2020 checklist and flow diagram can be found on this site.
Cochrane training
Provides many learning resources (ex. online courses, learning modules, webinars, etc.) on how to conduct, edit and read systematic reviews; for individuals, groups, and trainers.
Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions
The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions is the official guide that describes in detail the process of preparing and maintaining Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of healthcare interventions. Includes guidance on the standard methods applicable to every review (planning a review, searching and selecting studies, data collection, risk of bias assessment, statistical analysis, GRADE and interpreting results), as well as more specialised topics (non-randomized studies, adverse effects, complex interventions, equity, economics, patient-reported outcomes, individual patient data, prospective meta-analysis, and qualitative research).

Scoping review : guides, manuals and videos

Learn why scoping reviews are important and how they are done by watching the video below.

PRISMA for Scoping review (PRISMA ScR)
Contains a checklist of 20 essential reporting items and 2 optional items to include when completing a scoping review.
JBI manual- chapter 11: Scoping reviews
Learn what is a scoping review, how to develop a protocol, and steps to conduct a scoping review.

Covidence

Covidence is web-based software platform that streamlines the production of evidence synthesis projects. University of Ottawa has an institutioinal subscription, so all students and researchers have access.

Check out uOttawa's Covidence libguide for more resources on how to use Covidence.

Worksheets

Concept search worksheet
A fillable worksheet that helps you identify and organize search concepts and keywords for your search strategy.
Boolean Logic and Special Characters Guide
This handout will help you understand how to use boolean operators in a database search and show you examples of different special characters you can use to improve your database searches.
Search Log (Word Doc version)
A fillable template to help searchers keep track of their search queries across databases and over time. Use it for databases and grey literature searches.
Search Log (spreadsheet version)
A fillable template to help searchers keep track of their search queries across databases and over time. Use it for databases and grey literature searches.
Search translation guide
This handout explains how to translate a search across different databases, and includes cheat sheets of search syntax for commonly used bibliographic databases.
Search translation and organization template
Template spreadsheet that helps you translate and organize all database search results in one place. Spreadsheet is already populated with sample search information to illustrate use (i.e. you will need to replace it with your own information).