Search Plan
Your search plan will be a brief summary of the topic of the study, a summary of inclusion and exclusion criteria, a list of the appropriate publications, sources and methods that you will use for identifying materials and a list of concepts related to your topic. Your search strategy will put into operation the decisions you have made in your search plan.
PICO
Construct your search strategy using PICO or another appropriate framework such as SPIDER or ECLIPSE to ensure that the research question can be translated into search concepts. For more information on these frameworks, view our Effective Literature Searching guide.
It may be useful to work with a librarian who has experience in a range of bibliographic databases to plan your search strategy. The librarian may, for instance, conduct a preliminary search of PubMed using their “clinical queries” to find recent systematic reviews on your research question.
You should plan to conduct your search in multiple databases. You will also modify your search strategy through trial and error since this is an iterative process.
Remember, Advocate Aurora librarians are available to suggest databases, help with search strategies and conduct searches for Advocate Health - Midwest team members.
Includes all Cochrane Reviews (and protocols) prepared by Cochrane Review Groups. Each Cochrane Review is a peer-reviewed systematic review that has been prepared and supervised by a Cochrane Review Group according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions or Cochrane Handbook for Diagnostic Test Accuracy Reviews.
Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects contains the abstracts of quality assessed and critically appraised systematic reviews on health and social care interventions which has ceased publication (1994 to March 2015). It is an archive maintained by CRD and the records can also be accessed via PubMed.
An online-only open-access peer-reviewed medical journal published by BioMed Central that focuses on systematic reviews. Articles are either about specific systematic reviews or about their protocols, methodologies, findings, followup, etc.
A database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy.
Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) is a free database of over 20,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy.
It is recommended that you create a protocol for your systematic review project in order to:
The protocol includes inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria is everything that a study must have in order to be included in your review. Exclusion criteria are the factors that would make a study ineligible to be included in your review.
These criteria may include dates, how a study was designed, population and outcomes. The protocol will also include eligibility, search strategy and how you'll assess the studies.
Note that to prevent bias you will need to include studies in other languages. Include in your protocol how you will find and translate these studies.
You should provide detailed documentation of your search strategy to ensure that it is reproducible and reported correctly. Document in detail where you are searching and what you are searching for.
Once you have developed a protocol, you should register it. Registering your protocol will let others know what you're researching, so they don't duplicate your work. Registering a protocol also makes your project more appealing to publishers because you have taken the time to avoid bias and duplication.
Sample organizations for registering protocols include: