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Libraries & Cultural Resources

Research Guides

Psychology

Frequently Asked Questions

We are happy to collaborate in your learning and development with the goal to build independent skill capacity. Librarians are pleased to provide guidance for approaching search strategies using best practices.

Research teams are responsible for creating and running their search strategies as part of their data collection method, as well as responding to peer reviewers about the searches. 

This is how you get started (scroll down this libguide for additional information):

  1. Put together your project protocol (key: look at published/posted exemplars for format and headers)
  2. After identifying your topic of inquiry, articulate a specific research question
  3. Determine appropriate eligibility criteria (population, geography, intervention etc) for study inclusion and exclusion
  4. Perform a discovery phase in an easy-to-use source (Google Scholar, Pubmed, academically oriented and reliable genAI tools) to determine the breadth, depth, scope and scale of potential available literature (this step should inform you on the volume of literature you will be synthesizing)
  5. Be on the lookout for recently published meta-analysis, rapid, scoping, and systematic reviews
  6. Articulate your rationale for undertaking an evidence synthesis on the specific research question
  7. Start to take note of keywords as you read (keywords will be greatly informed by both your question and eligibility criteria)
  8. Adjust your research question and eligibility criteria as necessary and re-check for published reviews
  9. Select exemplar/seed papers that adhere to the the research question AND eligibility criteria to test the final database search

*Please note that meta-analysis and quantitative methodologies are outside of the support we are able to provide. Researchers must independently consult official methodology guidance for all review types. 

Acknowledgement:

  • If you would like to extend formal acknowledgement to a librarian in your manuscript, presentation, school work, dissertation/thesis etc. please inquire with the individual you were working with prior to submission.

 

Libraries and Cultural Resources does not offer a systematic review or literature review service to run searches for research teams and students.

  • Our focus as academic staff is to build campus capacity through our offers of teaching, learning and research activities around expert data collection for systematic and scoping reviews.
  • Due to other research and practice priorities we do not conduct PRESS reviews. 

The final searches are the responsibility of the team. Team members need to be independently knowledgeable about how to use academic databases, source grey literature and conduct systematic searches. This includes responding to peer reviewer comments and suggestions for changes.

Please see the section on co-authorship for additional information on collaboration.

We are pleased to provide learning resources to students, trainees and RAs! We would like to emphasize that self-directed learning, including database searching training and practice, will be necessary, as is a "can-do" attitude!

  • Undergraduate and graduate students will need to ensure they are completing work according to UCalgary academic integrity and misconduct rules and guidelines, assuming responsibility for conducting and finalizing their own search strategies.
  • Project brainstorming should occur amongst the research team and/or with a graduate supervisor.
  • Official methodology guides serve as authorative sources for answering research methods questions.
  • Reading published examplars of reviews can aid in building familiarity with the structure and format.

Important: The principal investigator, lab lead, preceptor or graduate supervisor maintains the role of project manager/mentor to provide staff and students the necessary structure, mentorship and guidance required for a successful project. 

Consider:

  • Hiring research assistants with prior demonstrated experience with database searching and literature reviews as this is a foundational skill for systematic and scoping reviews. 

Acknowledgement:

  • If you would like to extend formal acknowledgement to a librarian in your manuscript, presentation, school work, dissertation/thesis etc. please inquire with the individual you were working with prior to submission.

Instructors, preceptors and researchers are urged to consider the pros and cons before recommending or assigning a knowledge synthesis project/coursework to trainees and students; taking into consideration the considerable resources required for a successful, timely and gratifying outcome.

 

As academic staff, librarians collaborate as a co-author on select research projects that align with their scholarship interests and availability. Librarians at the University of Calgary offer methodological expertise in the data-gathering portion of evidence synthesis including the provision of search strategies and exporting citations into Covidence or the provision of RIS files. Full text article retrieval is out of scope. 

To begin collaboration conversations, please have a working draft of your project protocol (with all sections addressed in some capacity) ready to share. As demand outpaces availability, collaboration may not be possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Reach out at Contact Us. Librarians support specific faculties/departments/programs, and your request will be routed to the person who supports your research area. Please do not contact multiple individuals about the same project. 

Approaching your Knowledge Synthesis Project

Before you assign or accept a role on a systematic or scoping review project:

  • Is a systematic review or scoping review the appropriate choice for your research?
  • Consider if you have available and appropriate resources (time, personnel etc)
    • Do you have the time and motivation for self-directed learning and independence for this type of project?
    • Do you have a training plan for skill development? 
    • Notably: this includes independent database searching, data extraction, finding full text etc
    • Most projects take between 6 months to 2 years to complete, and updates to the searches may be necessary

Protocol

  • A protocol is your project plan/roadmap
  • Needs to be in a solid working draft prior to database searching
  • Most journals want to see an open and discoverable protocol posted prior to publication of a full review
    • The protocol should be completed in full before abstract screening begins
  • PROSPERO for systematic review protocols only
  • PRISM for systematic and scoping review protocols (search "scoping review protocol" for exemplars)
  • Preprint Server 
  • Open Science Framework

Discovery Phase

  • Turn your topic of inquiry into a research question (this ensures when you doing your title/abstract screen you can identify whether your question can be answered (confirmed, refuted or remains inconclusive).
  • Establish some inclusion and exclusion criteria (population, intervention, geographical location etc)
  • Go to Google Scholar to try and find some papers (hint: pay attention to literature saturation...is there too much? Too little? Lots of synthesis projects already published on your topic?)
  • Adjust your question and inclusion/exclusion criteria as necessary and then go back and re-search Google Scholar

Project Management

  • You need at least two team members who will be actively searching and screening the literature, 3+ is better for building consensus
  • You will need to search at least 2 academic databases
  • Consider a drafting a project charter for sign-off on expectations and deliverables
  • Create a project site on Teams etc. for collaboration
  • Set up a Covidence account and invite your team members 
  • Set up an account in OVID 
  • Sign up for Endnote OR Zotero for citing and writing
  • Document search strategies in text (not just screen shots)
  • Save files with dates and initials
  • Consider subscribing to a tool such as HubMeta for meta-analysis projects

Checklists

Database Training

Covidence

Citation Managers

 

Libraries & Cultural Resources