To ensure a comprehensive and well-structured search strategy, research teams should collaborate with librarians. These experts specialize in:
✅ Transforming research questions into searchable concepts
✅ Identifying the most relevant databases 🔎
✅ Crafting detailed and precise search strategies
✅ Adapting searches for different databases
✅ Documenting the search methodology ✍️
✅ Creating the PRISMA flow diagram for transparency
📋 PRISMA Searching Checklist ✔️
The PRISMA Searching Checklist provides guidelines on what search details should be reported in a systematic review. It consists of 16 key reporting items, each accompanied by examples and explanations to enhance transparency and reproducibility. 📝
"Grey literature stands for manifold document types produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats that are protected by intellectual property rights, of sufficient quality to be collected and preserved by libraries and institutional repositories, but not controlled by commercial publishers; i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body."
- The Twelfth International Conference on Grey Literature in Prague in 2010.
Examples of grey literature include: conference abstracts, presentations, proceedings; regulatory data; unpublished trial data; government publications; reports (such as white papers, working papers, internal documentation); dissertations/theses; patents; and policies & procedures.
When developing your search strategy, it’s essential to:
Formulate Your Research Question: Define a focused question such as "How do sustainable building materials influence energy performance in residential buildings?"
Identify Key Concepts: Break down your research question into main concepts. In this example, sustainable building materials and energy performance are two key concepts.
Develop Synonyms: Create synonyms for each concept. For example, energy performance can also be called energy efficiency or building energy use.
Use Boolean Operators: Combine concepts with AND, OR, and NOT to narrow or broaden your search. For example, for a search on energy efficiency in green buildings: "energy efficiency" AND ("green roofs" OR "sustainable materials") AND ("residential buildings") NOT "commercial buildings"
Consider Search Limits: Set appropriate filters such as publication date, language, or document type (e.g., articles, conference papers). For a review on energy-efficient building materials, you might want to limit to studies published in the last 10 years.
The selection of appropriate databases is crucial for a successful systematic review. While we suggest using a broad selection of databases, such as:
When it comes to choosing a database, we recommend 5 broad databases
Your choice should also be influenced by your specific field of research. Always check the subject libguides for tailored recommendations.
