Librarian involvement in systematic reviews was associated with higher quality of reported search methods: a cross-sectional survey

Ref ID 1049
First Author C. Pawliuk
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2024
URL https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(23)00327-X/abstract
Keywords • Searching
• General medical
• Expertise
• Team
Problem(s) • Literature searches not validated by information specialist
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Canada
Aim To investigate whether an increased level of librarian involvement in systematic reviews (SRs) published by Vancouver authors correlated with higher quality in reporting of search methods. Additionally, for the SRs that did not include a librarian, to ascertain from the author the reason for this.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Of the 191 included SRs, 118 (62%) of the SRs published by Vancouver authors, authors indicated whether a librarian was involved in the SR. Quality was assessed using a tool based on the Institute of Medicine’s standards for systematic reviews, and found that SRs including a librarian as a co-author had a 15.4% higher quality assessment score than SRs that did not include a librarian. Most authors (27; 75%) who did not include a librarian in their SR did not do so because they did not believe it was necessary.
Number of systematic reviews included 191
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 1152
Treatment impacted Not Applicable
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description