Hi all,
As a health librarian, I am often asked to assist residents and clinical researchers in their management of information for the SR. Apart from the retrieval from health databases, a myriad of issues affects the management of references even before put through inclusion / exclusion criteria processes.
I try to watch the issues closely on my wiki, and offer the following files for your assistance. ~~Dean
I. Three way comparison of Mendeley, RefWorks & Zotero
http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Managing_your_scholarship:_Mendeley,_RefWorks_or_Zotero%3F
II. Bibliographic citation software
http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Bibliographic_citation_software
III. Systematic review searching
http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Systematic_review_searching
-----Original Message-----
> Date: Mon Jan 17 10:13:26 PST 2011
> From: "Ahmed M. Abou-Setta, MD" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Reference Management Software
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Hi Jo, hi All,
>
> Jo has brought up an important topic that we don't discuss much here on this
> mail list, practical day-to-day problems faced by systematic reviewers.
> Maybe this is because the list members are not very much interested in this
> topic, or maybe because the list moderators prefer for us to discuss more
> methodological-related issues. In either case, I am happy that this topic
> has been brought up since as a systematic reviewer, I do face many of these
> issues on a daily basis and there isn't much guidance out there or trends
> that one can learn from. It seems that each team/ center has their own set
> of in-house rules on how to manage the day to day activities of systematic
> reviews and depending on budget, allocated resources and availability of
> programs, there doesn't seem to be much consensus. In any case, I am happy
> that we got a chance to discuss this topic and hopefully more topics like
> this will arise in the future.
>
> Best wishes to all,
>
> Ahmed
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Evidence based health (EBH)
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jo Jordan
> Sent: January 17, 2011 4:07 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Reference Management Software
>
> Thanks for all the suggestions.
>
> I agree, it would be very difficult to use just one package to search
> all the databases that are required for a SR to be comprehensive. A
> lot of time and skill goes into translating the search strategy to
> efficiently search different databases due to very different indexing
> terms and structures. I'd probably be out of a job if there was such a
> package! While the searching has its own set of frustrations, I did
> want to see what people use for importing, de-duplicating and sifting
> the results of the searches for a systematic review. Part of the
> problem is documenting each stage of the process, such as which
> databases has each reference come from.
>
> For most of us we have to use what we are given the best we can, we
> use what we are familiar with, or it is about the cost. It seems as
> though Endnote is where Thomson ISI are concentrating all their
> efforts and in the end I suppose Reference Manager and Procite will
> eventually become obsolete. There are lots of web-based products
> available as well that are good for day-to-day keeping up to date,
> writing papers and sharing but aren't built for handling 1000s of
> results from searching multiple databases in SRs.
>
> JabRef looks like it might be worth exploring further, but doesn't
> looks so user friendly so might take a while to get familiar with.
>
> Many thanks,
> Jo
>
> On 15/01/2011 17:05, k.hopayian wrote:
> > Hello Jo and all respondents,
> > It has been an eye-opener to read about the different software
> > options for managing documents but there are still two problems that
> > you identified that have not been commented on.
> >
> > 1 On the the question of searches, I don't think that any
> > bibliographic or document management software can do the kind of
> > search you need for an SR. Several allow you to search from within
> > the package but search strategies are limited. (I use Bookends, Mac
> > only software, which searches Pubmed and downloads both citation and
> > pdf). But I don't know of any that will search several databases and
> > use the customised filters you need for an SR.
> >
> > 2 Turning to the question of managing records, I found the best way
> > to do this for my recent SR was to set up a database of my own. This
> > permitted me to record data such as: primary/secondary ref,
> > language, include/exclude choice by each independent reviewer,
> > reason for exclusion, final decision to include/exclude, a comments
> > box, a checkbox (for flagging documents you want to return to) etc.
> > This allows you to sort, search, create lists and write reports etc,
> > just as any database should. I imported all the references into the
> > data base after de-duplication. I created the database in Filemaker,
> > a cross-platform software for Mac and PC. It is great but not cheap!
> > It also good for producing lists and reports (e.g. list of excluded
> > papers and the reasons, a list of papers that have been tagged for
> > special interest).
> >
> > I can send a screen shot of the database individually to anyone
> > interested to know what it looks like (on the understanding you
> > forgive its chunky appearance - it was meant for personal use after
> > all - and the fact that had I known then what I know now, I would
> > have built it differently).
> >
> > Ta Ta For Now,
> > Kev
> >
> > Dr Kev (Kevork) Hopayian, MD FRCGP
> > General Practitioner, Leiston, Suffolk
> > Hon Sen Lecturer, School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice,
> > University of East Anglia
> > GP CPD Director, Suffolk
> > [log in to unmask]
> > www.angliangp.org
> > Making your practice evidence-based
> > http://www.rcgp.org.uk/bookshop/info_1_9780850843316.html
> >
> > On 13 Jan 2011, at 10:28, Jo Jordan wrote:
> >
> >> My query is concerned with the practical aspects of conducting a
> >> systematic review.
> >>
> >> I have had another frustrating week downloading and de-duplicating
> >> results from a large systematic review search, using a combination of
> >> RefWorks and Reference Manager. As usual I have come to the conclusion
> >> that all these packages, while they each have their advantages, are
> >> not designed for doing systematic reviews or large structured searches
> >> that involve searching a number of databases.
> >>
> >> I have managed to find a way round these issues, but was wondering
> >> what software packages other people use for this task and to see if
> >> there is anything better out there.
> >>
> >> Many thanks,
> >> Jo
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> >>
> >> Jo Jordan
> >> Research Information Manager
> >> Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre
> >> Primary Care Sciences
> >> Keele University
> >> Keele, UK
> >> ST5 5BG
> >> Email: [log in to unmask]
> >> Website: http://www.keele.ac.uk/research/pchs/pcmrc/
> >>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> >>
|