Knowledge Synthesis: Systematic, Scoping & Other Reviews
- Planning your review
- Knowledge Synthesis Service
- Developing your research question
- Drafting your protocol
- Creating your eligibility criteria
- Choosing sources to search
- Running your searches
- Exporting search results
- Quality assessment and data extraction
- Writing your methods section
- Equity in knowledge translation
- Workshop resources
- Tools
AI and Machine Learning
PRISMA 2020 requires reporting of any use of automation tools in a review. If you use a tool, consider:
- How will it affect the transparency of your review? Do you know exactly what the tool is doing? What biases might it introduce?
- How will it affect the reproducibility of your review? Can someone else get the same results using your input? Is the tool likely to exist or work the same way in a year, or two, or ten?
- Responsible AI in Evidence Synthesis (RAISE)Draft guidance on using AI tools in evidence synthesis, developed by experts from Cochrane, Campbell and other organizations.
- Development of an Evaluation Instrument on Artificial Intelligence Search Tools for Evidence SynthesisIncludes an evaluation tool developed by Canada's Drug Agency, as well as an inventory of 51 tools which may be useful in knowledge synthesis.
- Automation tools to support undertaking scoping reviews2024 article from Research Synthesis Methods which reviews several tools that may be used to partially automate tasks in a scoping review.
Search Automation Tools
- Ovid Search History LauncherThis tool allows you to enter a multi-line Ovid search history and run it in one of UBC's subscribed databases. Note: you must be on a UBC network computer or on VPN for the search to work.
- SR-Accelerator: Polyglot Search TranslatorEnter a PubMed or Ovid MEDLINE search and convert search for use in Web of Science or CINAHL. Note: the tool only changes the commands and formatting, it does not translate subject headings from one database to another, so further editing of the search is needed. Also: the version of PsycINFO in the tool is Ovid PsycINFO - UBC has EBSCO PsycINFO.
- Yale MeSH AnalyzerSpecific to health and biomedicine. Enter the PubMed ID numbers of known relevant articles and create an HTML or Excel file indicating the MeSH headings used to index those articles.
Keep Track of Your Research
Keep Track of Your Searches
Recording information about your searches and search results is essential and will keep you from unnecessary repetition and provide critical information to anyone you ask for assistance with your search.
Here's an example:
|
Database |
Date |
Search Terms |
Limits/Filters |
Results & Comments |
Database Terminology | Database Term Search | Results & Comments |
|
Web of Science |
01/03/18 |
Chocolate and blood pressure |
none |
405 results – expected more |
blood-pressure; chocolate; dark chocolate; cocoa; cocoa intake | (chocolate OR cocoa OR "dark chocolate" OR "cocoa intake") AND "blood-pressure" | 542 |
|
PubMed, etc. |
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- Last Updated: March 4, 2025