Once you have searched your chosen databases
- Scan abstracts
- Screen IN or OUT
- Use your inclusion/exclusion criteria to quickly make decisions.
- If IN then obtain full text.
- Keep notes. Consider a table for annotations.This allows you to attribute comments and findings correctly when writing up - a massive time saver.
- Tip. Export results from the database straight to Excel - no handling required!
- Note leads for follow up - new search terms, expert authors, highly cited papers.
- First read - for impression, decision on inclusion.
- Second read - critically analyse
- study design appropriate?
- population
- biases
- methodology
- conclusions consistent with results?
- underlying assumptions?
The writing process builds on this stage. While organising and analysing the literature, you may ...
- Identify themes
- Note areas of consensus or dissent
- Start to arrange articles into categories:
Remember. Most databases allow results to be exported into various formats.
- Export to a spreadsheet for analysis.
- Export to a reference manager to write up.
Use these functionalities to minimise manual handling of articles.