Name
Study title (preliminary)
Research question
Purpose of the literature search / [please state if for a grant proposal, clinical study, systematic review, …]
PICOS / Include / Exclude
Population / [describe the population in detail – who, what condition/disease (also note synonyms), country? Are there specific subgroups you are interested in?] / [how do you deal with mixed populations? E.g. you want to include adults only. A study included adults and children; In the baseline table, the authors report that of 100 participants 81 were adults and 19 children maybe set a cutoff, e.g. 80% of the study population must match your inclusion criteria.]
Intervention / [describe the intervention in detail – what is being tested? How is it defined? What are synonyms?] / [are concurrent medications/treatments not allowed?]
Comparison / [describe the comparison in detail– what is the intervention being tested against? How is it defined? What are synonyms? Also note if there is no comparison]
Outcome 1 / [describe the outcome in detail – what do you want to find out? How is it measured? When is it measured? What are synonyms?] / [if the outcome is reported for several timepoints, will you exclude any? Will you include dichotomous and continuous outcomes?]
Outcome 2 / [if you have several outcomes, describe them as you did with outcome 1]
Study design / [describe the study design in detail – any RCT? Any observational study?] / [do RCTs include quasi-randomized, cluster-randomized trials? Do observation studies include registries, before-after studies? What about letters, conference abstracts, editorials?]
Other / [language, publication date, …]
Please state what kind of help you need:
☐ I need help with the complete search strategy (usually comprising a peer-reviewed strategy for PubMed and syntax translations for other databases) *
☐ I have a draft search strategy and need advice from an information specialist to finalize it
☐ I have the complete search strategy and need an information specialist to review it (according to PRESS guideline; requires the acknowledgement of the information specialist’s name and affiliation in the acknowledgments)
☐ Other:
* Please note that the search strategy is the very foundation of a systematic review. To ensure high quality and reproducibility, the University Medical Library Basel offers a partnership to researchers: The lead information specialist who will work out search strategy with you will also draft method and result paragraphs on this process, and will give final approval of and accountability for the version to be published. In exchange, this information specialist will be co-author of any publication that results from this partnership (see ICMJE recommendations).
Key papersIf you are aware of any relevant papers that you would include in your review, it could help us fine-tune the search and ensure best retrieval rates. Please send us the PubMed IDs of such key papers.
Your search strategyIf you already have a final or draft search strategy, please paste here or attach as separate Word or Excel file.
University Medical Library BaselResearch Services
T +41 61 207 32 46
/ Hannah Ewald, MPH
Information Specialist
T+41 61 207 55 64
/ Christian Appenzeller-Herzog, PhD
Information Specialist
T+41 61 207 31 98
/ Monika Wechsler, Dipl. Biol.
Head of department, Subject Librarian
T+41 61 207 32 46