Who is involved in the review? Is it a team effort or largely you as an individual (you will need at least a second screener and they will need access to the same software chosen for screening)?
Do you have a clear idea of your inclusion and exclusion criteria to enable anyone involved to carry out the screening in a consistent manner?
When you have chosen the studies to include do you know how to carry out forward and backward citation searching?
For further clarification check with your supervisor or tutor.
Screening the results
- In the first instance references will be screened at the title and abstract level
- Using the title and abstract you will decide whether an article looks like it should be included
- Decide what is eligible and is to be included and record the reasons why things were excluded
- Following the title and abstract screening anything remaining will be screened further in full text
- You can now decide what sort of analysis you would do with the results you have found. It could be quantitative (a meta-analysis) using some statistical tools or qualitative (a narrative analysis) using a written assessment. It is likely that you will need to see all the results before you can decide what sort of analysis is appropriate. The individual studies you end up with will not always be comparable enough to do a meta-analysis but you cannot know this at the outset.
Software tools for screening results - make heading
You can work through screening as a team, record your progress, double screen and deduplicate.
Rayyan - is a web application designed for screening results a limited version freely available, full access requires a subscription
Covidence - is a similar web application available on subscription.
Forward and Backward (360 degree) Searching
For the final set of included studies you may wish to carry out Forward and Backward searching. For more information on Forward and Backward searching watch the 360 degree searching video on the Academic Skills Kit Keeping up to date page.