Completing high quality systematic reviews depends upon a number of factors; the most important is the team that is assembled to support this endeavor.   Important areas of expertise to cover include:

• Content Experts: One or more individuals to act as active consultants and investigator-level reviewers. These team members provide expertise in the subject area covered by the review and represent a variety of perspectives that will add to the quality of the process and resulting publication.
• Systematic Review Methods Experts: One or more individuals with expertise in the methods of conducting systematic reviews. A librarian or information specialist can contribute in this role, especially if they bring to the table past experience. This role can also be filled by a content expert.
• Statistician: This team player is critical especially if meta-analysis is being considered.
• Medical Librarian/Information Specialist: Knowledge about the various bibliographic databases and controlled vocabularies supports the development of a search strategy that will generate relevant and focused results. In addition, the librarian searcher can document and write the methods section of the manuscript as well as support the team in leveraging citation management tools.
• Reference Coordinator: Someone from the team needs to be the point person for maintaining and managing the database of references. Most systematic reviews involve thousands of abstracts/papers and it is vital to manage these references and keep track of what has been reviewed, and which ones will be included or excluded. Continue reading →