The UBC Library Knowledge Synthesis Service is available for students and faculty seeking support with knowledge synthesis projects including systematic, scoping, and related reviews. Librarian assistance is recommended for knowledge synthesis projects, and our service is available in two tiers, depending on the scope of work and the needs of the research team. Requests can be made by selecting from the two service tier options below.
Students and faculty from both UBC Vancouver and Okanagan campuses are welcome to inquire about the Knowledge Synthesis Service.
Tier 1 Service
Consultation and Instruction
Eligibility: UBC students, faculty, and staff
The librarian will provide advice and instruction on conducting a knowledge synthesis project.
Read more about Consultation and Instruction
The librarian will provide advice and instruction on conducting a knowledge synthesis project. Topics may include guidance on:
- Choosing appropriate review type
- Research protocol development and registration
- Identifying relevant databases
- Database searching and documentation
- Identifying grey literature sources
- Additional searching methods such as hand searching or reference
- searching
- Citation management, screening tools and article appraisal tools
- Tools for journal selection
Consultations are generally an hour in length; as the librarian’s time permits, there may be opportunities for follow-up consultations or email correspondence.
Researchers consulting with a librarian may wish to acknowledge the librarian for their assistance with the completed review. If you plan to acknowledge the librarian by name, please request their formal consent.
Tier 2 Service
Co-authorship and Collaboration
Eligibility: UBC faculty, post-doctoral fellows, residents, and other individuals working on reviews where a UBC faculty member is Principal Investigator
Eligible UBC members may choose either the Tier 1 consultation service or request collaboration with a librarian as a co-author.
Read more about Co-authorship and Collaboration
Eligible UBC members may choose either the Tier 1 consultation service as described above or request collaboration with a librarian as a co-author. Student work (coursework, theses or dissertations, comprehensives) is not eligible for Tier 2 service.
When collaborating as a co-author, librarians may do some or all of these tasks:
- Search strategy implementation & operationalization
- Search execution and translation to all identified databases
- Documentation of all searches
- Draft Methods section for manuscript and provide search strategies per PRISMA recommendations
- Create PRISMA flow diagram
- Guidance on conducting grey literature and supplementary searches
- Update search as required
- Provide citation data files to investigators and manage files, including using Covidence
- Review manuscript
- Assist in responding to search-related peer reviewer or editor feedback
These tasks are generally outside the scope of Tier 2 service:
- Acquire full text of articles
- Participate in screening
- Conduct data extraction or quality assessment
When engaging a librarian as a co-author, principal investigators agree to the following:
- You, the principal investigator, will meet with the librarian at least once (subsequent meetings may be with another designated team member)
- Have at least one other person, besides the librarian, working on the review with you
- Invite librarian to team meetings, if appropriate
- Provide librarian with subject-specific feedback around developing and refining the search strategy
- Keep librarian updated on the status of the review team’s progress, and any major changes, and provide librarian access to team documentation
- Offer librarian co-authorship on any review publications. Note that librarian may choose to decline co-authorship.
- Get librarian’s approval on the final manuscript before submission for publication. In line with guidelines such as the CRediT taxonomy or ICME authorship criteria, librarian co-authors must have substantive, meaningful input into the manuscript.
Librarians have the right to decline co-authorship or withdraw from participation in a Tier 2 project. Tier 2 service is dependent on capacity and a waitlist may be implemented. Tier 1 level service may be identified as a better fit for a given project.