Knowledge Synthesis: Systematic, Scoping & Other Reviews

UBC Library is introducing a new service for knowledge synthesis consultation and collaboration. There are two service levels:

Tier 1 service: Consultation and Instruction

Eligibility: UBC students, faculty, and staff

The librarian will provide advice and instruction on conducting a knowledge synthesis project. Topics may include guidance on:

• Choosing appropriate review type
• Research protocol development and registration
• Identifying relevant databases
• Database searching and documentation
• Identifying grey literature sources
• Additional searching methods such as hand searching or reference searching
• Citation management, screening tools and article appraisal tools
• Tools for journal selection

Tier 2 service: Co-authorship and Collaboration

Eligibility: UBC faculty, post-doctoral fellows, residents, and other individuals working on reviews where a UBC faculty member is Principal Investigator.

Eligible UBC members may choose either the Tier 1 consultation service as described above, or request collaboration with a librarian as a co-author. Student work (coursework, theses or dissertations, comprehensives) is not eligible for Tier 2 service. After completing the form, the PI will need to meet with the librarian for an initial conversation before proceeding.

When collaborating as a co-author, librarians may do some or all of these tasks:

• Search strategy implementation and operationalization
• Search execution and translation to all identified databases
• Documentation of all searches
• Draft Methods section for manuscript and provide search strategies per PRISMA recommendations
• Create PRISMA flow diagram
• Guidance on conducting grey literature and supplementary searches
• Update search as required
• Provide citation data files to investigators and manage files, including using Covidence
• Review manuscript
• Assist in responding to search-related peer reviewer or editor feedback

These tasks are generally outside the scope of Tier 2 service:

• Acquire full text of articles
• Participate in screening
• Conduct data extraction or quality assessment

For general inquiries about the Knowledge Synthesis Service, please contact library.ksst@ubc.ca.

When engaging a librarian as a co-author, principal investigators agree to the terms below. You'll be asked to sign an agreement in the initial meeting with the librarian.

• You, the principal investigator, will meet with the librarian at least once (subsequent meetings may be with another designated team member)
• Have at least one other person, besides the librarian, working on the review with you
• Invite librarian to team meetings, if appropriate
• Provide librarian with subject-specific feedback around developing and refining the search strategy
• Keep librarian updated on the status of the review team’s progress, and any major changes, and provide librarian access to team documentation
• Offer librarian co-authorship on any review publications. Note that librarian may choose to decline co-authorship.
• Get librarian’s approval on the final manuscript before submission for publication. In line with guidelines such as the CRediT taxonomy or ICME authorship criteria, librarian co-authors must have substantive, meaningful input into the manuscript.

Librarians have the right to decline co-authorship or withdraw from participation in a Tier 2 project. Tier 2 service is dependent on capacity and a waitlist may be implemented. Tier 1 level service may be identified as a better fit for a given project.