Physical Therapy: Synthesis Reviews

Synthesis Review Support

The University Library offers researchers support to facilitate synthesis literature reviews. This document outlines the three types of support offered and who is eligible.

These supports are intended for researchers conducting comprehensive synthesis reviews. This may include (but is not limited to): systematic reviews; scoping reviews; realist reviews; rapid reviews, and/or meta-analyses.  Please consult Grant & Booth’s 2009 article or Sutton et al, 2019 article for more information concerning synthesis review types and methodologies.

Types of Support & Eligibility

We offer three types of support for comprehensive synthesis reviews. Please note that support for graduate theses, course work, and student/medical resident projects is offered through the Training and Consultation only.  Review teams can receive up to 10 hours of support through a combination of Training and/or Consultation.

a) Training

Research assistants, students, post-doctoral fellows, medical residents, and faculty can request individual or group training sessions on advanced literature searching for synthesis reviews. Training sessions would not typically address a specific research project but would provide instruction on the knowledge and skills required for synthesis review literature searching, on topics such as effective use of common biomedical databases, use of Library-supported reference management software, and proper documentation of search results and strategies.

b) Consultation

Research assistants, students, post-doctoral fellows, medical residents, and faculty can request consultation services to assist them with literature searching for a synthesis review. This option works best when the student or faculty member(s) has already done some work and would like assistance with specific questions related to their synthesis review.

c) Collaboration

With collaboration, a USask faculty member partners with a liaison librarian to produce a jointly authored systematic review intended for publication. The liaison librarian, as a member of the research team, is responsible for conducting the literature search for the review and drafting the literature search methodology section of the synthesis review. Liaison librarian collaboration is available for reviews only when the USask faculty is the Principal Investigator and primary contact. This type of service is dependent on librarian availability and capacity.