Tag Archives: Literature Searching

Important information on reporting systematic review and meta-analyses: PRISMA 2020 updated guideline

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PRISMA is a recognised tool designed to improve the quality of reporting primary systematic review and meta-analyses. It is used widely by researchers, staff and students in the School of Health and Life Sciences. Updates to PRISMA, including the statement, checklist and flow diagram were published earlier this year. The Library is working on updates to our website and associated guides to reflect these changes.

For the time being we will continue to provide our guidance on using the 2009 flow diagram.

We will also consult with academic departments within the school on how our support should develop in response to the new guideline.

If you need to access the new PRISMA documents you can find them on the PRISMA website. For more detailed information on PRISMA 2020 including how it was developed, how to use it and exemplars the following articles are helpful:

BMJ (OPEN ACCESS) Page, M. J. et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 2021;372:n71, doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71

BMJ (OPEN ACCESS) Page, M. J. et al. PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 2021;372:n160, doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n160 Continue reading →

Behind the magic button: peer review

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Students often tell us they’ve been asked to find ‘peer reviewed’ journal articles for an assignment. Librarians and academics sometimes talk about peer review in very general terms – ‘rigorous editorial process’, ‘evaluated by experts’, ‘reliable academic standard’ and so on. The language we use to talk about peer review  tends to be quite positive and therefore it’s no surprise that on campus there seems to be a general consensus that peer review is a good indicator of high quality information. Continue reading →

What is PRISMA?

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What is PRISMA?

Are you undertaking your dissertation or a major piece of research?

Looking for a diagram/flowchart to evidence your search strategy?

PRISMA is a recognised tool designed to improve the quality of reporting primary systematic and meta-analyses. A common question to the Academic Librarian team is “What is PRISMA and how do I complete the flowchart?”

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The great grey yonder: making use of information sources beyond academic textbooks and journals

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Academic textbooks and journals are essential to completing your studies but they are often just one piece of a larger picture when you are investigating a topic. How can you describe the modern political landscape without referring to social media, understand the implementation of best practice in health care without consulting a clinical guideline, or evaluate the workforce inclusivity of a particular business or organisation without reviewing their diversity policy? This type of information has a place in any student’s research and it has a name – grey literature.

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