Work With a Librarian

Are you planning, or already conducting, a research study that employs evidence synthesis methods? Consulting a librarian can advance your progress. After you decide what level of service is best, please let us know about your review and the kind of support you are interested in receiving by filling out the following:

About Evidence Synthesis

Evidence synthesis is a systematic research method used to integrate multiple studies on a topic and extract a summative analysis. Results are most often published in the form of a review article, of which there are several varieties. Reviews are useful for identifying research gaps, informing policy or practice through a comprehensive evaluation of evidence, or aggregating conflicting findings in the literature. A quality review should be unbiased, transparent, and reproducible.

The use of evidence synthesis originated in the health sciences, but it continues to grow in other fields, such as education, psychology, economics, physical and life sciences, business, and engineering. Harvard Library advances evidence synthesis scholarship in disciplines across the sciences, social sciences, and professional and applied fields.

Library Services for Evidence Synthesis

Consultation with expert librarians is a hallmark of evidence synthesis best practices. To help your review meet the rigorous standards characteristic of this method, Harvard librarians offer three tiered models of support, free of charge, with one exception.* Please note that these services are intended for Harvard faculty, staff, and graduate students in the sciences and social sciences, and are contingent upon staff availability and capacity. If you are conducting are review in medicine and health sciences, consider Countway Library's Review Service, instead.

*For HBS faculty using Baker Research & Data Services, project work is charged to faculty research budgets at an hourly rate.

Tier 1. Basic Consultation Service 

Librarians can:
  • Help you find and evaluate evidence syntheses that have already been published.
  • Recommend methodological handbooks and guides suited to your study.
  • Help you apply a framework to ensure your research question is aligned with your research purpose, has the right scope, and identifies key components of your inquiry; this helps to build your search strategy.
  • Advise on the search strategies you have devised, including your chosen databases, sources of gray literature, search syntax, and search sets.  
  • Provide feedback on the methods section of your written review.

Tier 2. Consultation-Plus Service

In addition to basic consultation services, librarians can: 
  • Check for existing reviews on your chosen topic.
  • Identify relevant databases and sources of gray literature.
  • Design the search strategy for your primary database.*
  • Provide guidance on protocol development and registration.
  • Advise on the structure of the methods section in your written review.
  • Recommend search documentation practices and orient you to relevant tools, like Zotero.
  • Introduce you to tools for article screening, such as ASReview, Rayyan, or Covidence.
  • Identify appropriate journals for publication submission.

*Librarians who collaborate on search strategy formation should be acknowledged in the final publication by name or via in-text citation.

Tier 3. Co-Author Service (limited to grant-funded studies)

In addition to basic and consultation-plus services, librarian co-authors can:
  • Design and perform a comprehensive search of the literature through bibliographic databases, registers, hand searching, and grey literature searches. 
  • Translate the primary search strategy and syntax across platforms.
  • Document all searches for use in subsequent updates.
  • Assist with retrieval of full text.
  • Suggest specific Risk of Bias and Critical Appraisal checklists and tools to help the research team systematically and rigorously assess the quality, validity, and relevance of research studies.
  • Write up the information retrieval methods section of the study.
  • Prepare search strategies for publication in an appendix or supplement.
  • Advise on reporting expectations.
  • Answer questions or provide guidance as needed.

Authorship: Librarians who provide evidence synthesis support at Harvard have adopted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definition of authorship. If a librarian helping with a review meets the defined criteria, that person will be listed as an author on articles and other resulting scholarly dissemination.

Open Access (OA) Publishing: Librarians typically do not receive research funding and are not able to pay publication fees should authors decide to pursue open access options. However, this does not preclude librarians from authorship should their intellectual contribution match the ICMJE authorship criteria.

Workshops

Workshops on evidence synthesis methods and best practices for review projects at Harvard Library:

Getting Started with Evidence Synthesis: Best Practices for Literature Review Projects

Are you planning or currently conducting a systematic review, scoping review, or meta-analysis? Drop-in for a workshop on evidence synthesis methods and best practices for literature review projects. We’ll explore:

  • Defining and refining a clear research question
  • Developing a structured, reproducible search strategy
  • Managing references and screening studies efficiently
  • Extracting and synthesizing data transparently
  • Reporting findings using established guidelines (e.g., PRISMA)

Librarians from the Evidence Synthesis Service will walk you through the key steps of conducting a high-quality evidence synthesis, offering tips, tools, and resources tailored to your research needs.

Library Experts in Evidence Synthesis

If you're seeking assistance for a new project, please use the Service Request Form, rather than reaching out to experts individually. We will triage your request according to your needs.
 

Sciences (Faculty of Arts and Sciences)

Social Sciences (Faculty of Arts and Sciences)

Harvard Business School

Service: Research and Data Services for HBS Faculty (limited to faculty, charged to faculty research budgets at an hourly rate)

Harvard Graduate School of Education

TBD
 

Harvard Medical School

Service: Countway Library Review Service (limited to faculty)
Guide: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis