Abstract
ObjectiveWhat roles do librarians and information professionals play in conducting systematic reviews? Librarians are increasingly called upon to be involved in systematic reviews, but no study has considered all the roles librarians can perform. This inventory of existing and emerging roles aids in defining librarians’ systematic reviews services.MethodsFor this scoping review, the authors conducted controlled vocabulary and text-word searches in the PubMed; Library, Information Science & Technology s; and CINAHL databases. We separately searched for articles published in the Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, the Journal of the Canadian Heath Libraries Association, and Hypothesis. We also text-word searched Medical Library Association annual meeting poster and paper abstracts.ResultsWe identified 18 different roles filled by librarians and other information professionals in conducting systematic reviews from 310 different articles, book chapters, and presented papers and posters. Some roles were well known such as searching, source selection, and teaching. Other less documented roles included planning, question formulation, and peer review. We summarize these different roles and provide an accompanying bibliography of references for in-depth descriptions of these roles.ConclusionLibrarians play central roles in systematic review teams, including roles that go beyond searching. This scoping review should encourage librarians who are fulfilling roles that are not captured here to document their roles in journal articles and poster and paper presentations.
Highlights
Health sciences librarians have been involved with systematic reviews since this genre of publication emerged during the 1990s [1]
Two case studies during the mid-2000s suggested some potential roles for Journal of the Medical Library Association librarians in the creation of systematic reviews— such as searching, source selection, citation management, document supply, and critical appraisal
We reviewed Medical Library Association (MLA) meeting paper and poster abstracts archived on MLANET (Abstracts for MLA Annual Meeting, 2010–15 and Abstracts for MLA Annual Meeting, 2001–09; login required) for the years 2002 to 2015
Summary
Health sciences librarians have been involved with systematic reviews since this genre of publication emerged during the 1990s [1]. Even during the early years, librarians and other information professionals (hereafter referred to as “librarians”) were involved in other aspects of the systematic review process [2, 3]. Two case studies during the mid-2000s suggested some potential roles for Journal of the Medical Library Association librarians in the creation of systematic reviews— such as searching, source selection, citation management, document supply, and critical appraisal. These studies were based on the limited experiences of the authors [4, 5]. The Medical Library Association (MLA) has regularly sponsored continuing educational training on systematic reviews
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