Systematic Review Toolbox
Marshall C 1 , Sutton A 2 1
York Health Economics Consortium, University of York, UK, 2
School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, UK
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
CONCEPT
Systematic reviews facilitate the rigorous identification and synthesis of
Systematic Review (SR) Toolbox
evidence in healthcare. However, they can be time consuming, logistically
web-based catalogue of tools to support the systematic review process.
is a community-driven, searchable,
challenging and labour intensive to undertake. Such challenges have led
The resource aims to help reviewers find appropriate tools based on the
to the development of various software tools to support the systematic
stage(s) of the systematic review process. Users can perform a simple
review process. It has remained difficult, however, for researchers to easily
keyword search (i.e. Quick Search) to locate tools, or a more detailed
discover what tools are currently available to support their reviews. In
search (i.e. Advanced Search) allowing users to select various criteria to
response, a free, online resource of tools to support systematic reviews
find specific types of tools. Users are also able to submit new tools they
has been developed.
have found, used or developed, to the SR Toolbox. The resource was developed using PHP, SQL and JavaScript and uses Twitter to manage
Figure 1:
Home screen
its community.
Figure 2:
0..*
tool tool_id tool_name tool_description tool_link
1
The SR Toolbox stores information on over 100 software tools (October
tool_paper tool_paper_id tool_id * paper_id
1
tool_underlying_approach * tool_underlying_approach_id * tool_id approach_id tool_discipline * tool_discipline_id * tool_id discipline_id
*
RESULTS
Database schema
*
paper paper_id paper_title paper_link
1 underlying_approach approach_id approach discipline discipline_id discipline
1
tool_cost tool_cost_id tool_id cost_id
*
1
cost cost_id feature
tool_feature tool_feature_id tool_id feature_id
*
1
feature feature_id feature
2016) to support the systematic review process. These include freelyavailable tools based on data visualisation, text mining and machine learning approaches. The SR toolbox also catalogues a number of more
Figure 3:
Search Results
substantial commercial and not-for-profit software packages that manage substantial portions of the systematic review process. Paper-based tools, such as guidelines, checklists and reporting standards, are also included.
RECOMMENDATIONS The SR Toolbox is a useful way to keep up to date with new software tools which have potential to make the SR process more efficient. We recommend researchers consider using the SR Toolbox as a resource for finding tools, and encourage software developers to catalogue any new tools.
CONTACT Website: www.systematicreviewtools.com Email:
[email protected] /
[email protected] @SRToolbox
School Of Health And Related Research
