Searching & Managing Information for Systematic Reviews/Evidence Syntheses

Reference management tools allow you to save references from your searches to a personal online account. This will help keep track of your search results. You can create separate folders for each database searched. 

These tools also work with word processors (e.g. Microsoft Word, Google Docs) so that when you’re writing assignments you can quickly add in-text citations, and they will automatically generate a reference list, formatted in a citation style of your choice.

There are many other features of reference managers that will also help manage your searches e.g. adding notes, appending full text, de-duplication of references. 

Zotero is a free reference management tool which collects, manages, and cites your research sources. This is the tool supported by DCU Library. Check out our Zotero guide for further information including how to download the software to your own device. 

Our Getting Started Video is a good place to start.

In order to manage search results effectively it is important to set out a plan in advance. This should include selecting a suitable reference management tool (e.g. Zotero) and deciding how and when you will export results to your reference management tool, this is particularly important as you will be searching multiple databases.

If you want to have a consistent and systematic approach, consider creating and using a workflow. The workflow you use will depend on how you like to work and also on the reference manager you are using and whether or not you are using an article screening tool such as Covidence. There are many examples of how to do this. Here are two examples.

Search each database and export ALL results for each database to your reference manager. 

1. Create a folder for each database and export references from the database to the relevant folder.
2. Create a combined folder and copy records from each database to the combined folder.
3. Deduplicate
4. Screen results Ti/Ab (read title and abstracts). 
5. Remove irrelevant articles or add relevant to a new folder
6. Retrieve full-text of all articles deemed relevant after Ti/Ab screening, if not already imported these can be added to Zotero
7. Screen results based on full text 
8. Remove irrelevant articles or add relevant to a new folder

Search each database and export ALL results for each database directly to Covidence. 

1. When importing results, Covidence will allow you to document the databases the results came from
2. Covidence will automatically deduplicate 
3. Screen articles based on Ti/Ab. Al those marked YES will be send forward for full text screening
4. Retrieve full text of all articles in Full text Review (Instructions).
5. Screen based on full-text and you will have your final set that can move forward for data extraction (if using)
6. You can export this final result set to Zotero or another reference manager if you wish to use it for formatting references