Librarian Support for Student Knowledge Synthesis Projects in Nursing: Information for Students

If you are a student working on a knowledge synthesis project (i.e., scoping, systematic,  integrative, or realist review), please review the information below in detail before booking a librarian consultation. 

Note that librarian support for student knowledge synthesis projects is limited due to capacity constraints: 

• NURS 862 students should check their course syllabus and/or with their instructor about librarian support for course assignments
• NURS 824 students are limited to two hours of librarian support (maximum)
• Masters thesis and PhD students are limited to five hours of librarian support (maximum)
• Complex email inquiries (e.g., search strategy feedback, advice on grey literature searching) count toward the total support limits
• Follow-up consultations (both via appointment and email) are dependent on appropriate progress made and librarian availability
• Appointments are limited to one per week and are a maximum of 50 minutes 

Please ensure you are prepared for your consultation so we can use that time effectively. 

Librarians can advise on how to:

• Discover whether a review or protocol on the same topic already exists
• Formulate the review question
• Determine appropriate databases/resources to search
• Develop a comprehensive search strategy, including translation across databases
• Perform a search update
• Conduct grey literature searches
• Report search methods according to PRISMA

Librarians cannot:

• Provide step-by-step guidance on how to conduct a knowledge synthesis project
• Provide supervision/mentorship; students/learners will be redirected to their instructor or supervisor
• Provide guidance on meta-analysis, quality appraisal, data extraction, and analysis/synthesis
• Interpret assignment instructions for students or review their assignment/project outputs before submission

I am only booking appointments for students who have completed the requirements. This helps me reduce administrative work, such as tracking forms and appointments, following up, and cancelling when forms are missing. It also means more appointment times are available when students need them most. Once you have your form ready, you should be able to find a time that works for you. If you don't see an open slot within a week or so of meeting the requirements, please book the next available time and email me. I will do my best to move your appointment to an earlier date if possible.

Initial Consultation Requirements

1. Ensure your searching skills are solid by reviewing the Basic Searching Skills page and watching the recommended videos
2. Watch parts 1 and 2 of the Knowledge Synthesis 101 video series
3. Check to see if your supervisor is available to attend the consultation. It is strongly recommended that faculty supervisors attend the initial consultation. 
4. Fill out the Knowledge Synthesis Consultation Planning Form or the NURS 824 Consultation Planning Form with your faculty supervisor and upload the completed copy to the booking system when scheduling your appointment. 

Please note that if the consultation requirements are not met and/or the form is incomplete, the booking will be cancelled. 

If these requirements are a barrier for you, please review the information in this guide and discuss with your supervisor before reaching out via email. 

Follow-up Consultation Requirements

1. Watch Part 3 of the Knowledge Synthesis 101 series, Creating a Comprehensive Search Strategy
2. Upload an up-to-date copy of the Knowledge Synthesis Consultation Planning Form or NURS 824 Consultation Planning Form, including a link to or a screenshot of your most recent search with previous feedback incorporated. 

I've included some notes and resources below to help you complete the Consultation Planning Form. For more in-depth information, please see the Knowledge Synthesis 101 video series. 

Review Type

If you are unsure which type of review suits your purposes, you should familiarize yourself with the expectations and processes for conducting these reviews. Please watch Part 1 of the Knowledge Synthesis 101 video series and read the following article:

Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: Exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36(3), 202–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276/

Existing Research

Ensure you are familiar with the existing research on your topic:

• Conduct a preliminary search of the literature (in Google Scholar, MEDLINE, or CINAHL)
• Set up an alert in Google Scholar, MEDLINE, and/or CINAHL to be notified when new articles are published on your topic
• Follow prominent authors in your field on Google Scholar: Search for their name, and see if they have a Google Scholar profile. If they do, click on it, click the "Follow" button next to their name, select "New articles by this author", and click "Done".
• To find existing reviews on your topic, check out these tips

The amount of published research, gaps in the literature, and/or existence of a prior review may influence decisions you will make about the purpose, focus, and methodology for your review.

Seed Articles

Based on your prior knowledge and preliminary searches in Google Scholar and/or a database of your choice, identify 3-5 articles that meet all of your criteria for inclusion in your review, without triggering any of your criteria for exclusion. This is not background information - these are articles that you would expect to find in your search, and would be included in the results of your review.

Sample Search Strategy

Please see this page for instructions on sharing your search strategy either as a link (MEDLINE) or a separate file (CINAHL).