We offer two tiers of librarian involvement in systematic review teams.
Tier 1:
Tier 2:
Coauthorship is requested for Tier 2
Meeting with a librarian during the earliest stages of planning can help you develop and conduct the complex literature searches required for systematic reviews. The National Academy of Sciences Health and Medicine Division (formerly the Institute of Medicine) recommends that systematic review teams “work with a librarian or other information specialist trained in performing systematic reviews to plan the search strategy.” (Standard 3.1.1)
The average time it takes to design and complete a full search is two weeks. The exact length of time depends on the complexity of the search, types of databases searched, changes required, and length of time required to resolve questions.
According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, authorship should be based on the following criteria:
The search strategies librarians design and implement are a substantial contribution to the design of the study, while the citation data acquired and organized is a substantial acquisition of data. The written methods regarding the design of the search, resources searched, and data retrieved fall under drafting the work. Finally, the librarian will stand behind their contributions to the manuscript.