Abstract
IntroductionThe authors examined the time that medical librarians spent on specific tasks for systematic reviews (SRs): interview process, search strategy development, search strategy translation, documentation, deliverables, search methodology writing, and instruction. We also investigated relationships among the time spent on SR tasks, years of experience, and number of completed SRs to gain a better understanding of the time spent on SR tasks from time, staffing, and project management perspectives.MethodsA confidential survey and study description were sent to medical library directors who were members of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries as well as librarians serving members of the Association of American Medical Colleges or American Osteopathic Association.ResultsOf the 185 participants, 143 (77%) had worked on an SR within the last 5 years. The number of SRs conducted by participants during their careers ranged from 1 to 500, with a median of 5. The major component of time spent was on search strategy development and translation. Average aggregated time for standard tasks was 26.9 hours, with a median of 18.5 hours. Task time was unrelated to the number of SRs but was positively correlated with years of SR experience.ConclusionThe time required to conduct the librarian’s discrete tasks in an SR varies substantially, and there are no standard time frames. Librarians with more SR experience spent more time on instruction and interviews; time spent on all other tasks varied widely. Librarians also can expect to spend a significant amount of their time on search strategy development, translation, and writing.
Highlights
The authors examined the time that medical librarians spent on specific tasks for systematic reviews (SRs): interview process, search strategy development, search strategy translation, documentation, deliverables, search methodology writing, and instruction
Due to deficits in the available literature, we developed a survey to discover how much time librarians spent on SR tasks and whether experience was a factor in task duration
For library managers to better understand future SR staffing needs, it is important for librarians to track their time spent on discrete SR tasks carefully and contemporaneously
Summary
The authors examined the time that medical librarians spent on specific tasks for systematic reviews (SRs): interview process, search strategy development, search strategy translation, documentation, deliverables, search methodology writing, and instruction. Recent academic publications have reported increased demand for librarian support services for systematic reviews (SRs) [4,5,6,7,8,9]. This trend is borne out by Crum and Cooper [10], who identified SR support as the second-most requested role of medical librarians as well as the largest concern for medical library directors in planning for staffing. They have identified the following common librarian tasks: developing and documenting the search strategy, translating the strategy to rerun in other databases, utilizing bibliographic software for the management and removal of duplicates, searching the grey literature, performing hand searches, writing the methods section, and searching through the bibliographies of retrieved articles for additional relevant studies (i.e., pearling)
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