Developing and Applying a Protocol for a Systematic Review in the Social Sciences

ABSTRACT

The article reports on a systematic method of undertaking a literature search on the educational impact of being a young carer (16–24 years old). The search methodology applied and described in detail will be of value to academic librarians and to other education researchers who undertake systematic literature searches. Seven bibliographic databases and Google Scholar were searched between November 2015 and January 2016. Two and three concept search structures were compared, involving 28 search terms plus truncation variants. One hundred and eighty-one relevant articles were retrieved. Sensitivity, precision, and “unique articles retrieved” were used as metrics. Social Care Online and Google Scholar had the greatest sensitivity. As well as meticulous use of AND, OR, and bracket operators, the use of NEAR and NOT operators to increase precision were tested and are recommended as useful tools for conducting systematic searches.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic librarians
• literature search
• bibliographic database
• Google Scholar
• education
• young carer

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the feedback and suggestions from Dr. Paul Best, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast; Janice McQuilkin, Subject Assistant Librarian, Ulster University; and Dr. Stephen Roulston, School of Education, Ulster University; and who each kindly read the article for us prior to submission, as well as the individuals who reviewed the article once it was submitted to the New Review of Academic Librarianship.

Notes

1. http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/

2. For definitions of young carers and young adult carers see: Sempik and Becker (2014); Sempik and Becker (2013); F. Becker and Becker (2008); Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (2006); and Dearden and Becker (2000).

3. http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/prospero.asp

4. “The Campbell Collaboration (C2) helps people make well-informed decisions by preparing, maintaining, and disseminating systematic reviews in education, crime and justice, and social welfare.” (http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/c2_systematic_reviews/) They also provide resources and guidance on preparing systematic reviews.

5. The amount of time needed to review and assess abstracts for relevance to the inclusion criteria was three and a half days for 1,525 articles.