Literature reviews and systematic reviews

Literature reviews play an important part in PhD projects, research proposals, articles, and larger research projects. Deciding which type of review suits a specific purpose, choosing databases, developing search strings or documenting the research process is a challenge. 

DTU Library's training can be tailored to the specific research project. Sessions can focus on the full review process or on selected aspects, such as literature searching, documentation, reference management or the responsible use of AI tools.

We typically cover topics such as: 

• Considering the right type of review, for example narrative, scoping or systematic reviews 
• Developing review protocols, including PRISMA-P  
• Selecting relevant databases such as PubMed, Scopus or Web of Science 
• Building and refining search strategies 
• Translating search strings between databases 
• Finding grey literature and other non-traditional sources
• Using AI tools for initial inspiration
• Setting up search alerts and citation alerts 
• Managing references and documenting search results, for example in Mendeley, Excel or Word 
• Screening and selecting studies using tools such as Excel and Silvi.ai 
• Reporting the review process, for example with a PRISMA flow diagram 
• Considering research data management, Open Access, copyright and journal selection