BOOK REVIEW / CRITIQUE DE LIVRE

Foster, MJ & Jewell, ST. Assembling the pieces of a
systematic review: a guide for librarians. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield; 2017. Hardcover: 226p. 978-
1442277014. Price USD$90.00. Available from:
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442277014

Finally, a book about systematic reviews for
librarians!

While there is no shortage of Libguides, web
resources and methods handbooks available on
systematic review methodology, very few (besides
SuRe Info) are intended specifically for information
specialists, and resources on how to create or run
systematic review services are virtually nonexistent
outside of what is reported in the academic literature
[1]. For this reason, Assembling the pieces of a
systematic review: a guide for librarians fills an
important gap as the first monograph (to my
knowledge) to cover these topics in depth.

Written by a team of librarians, and edited by
Margaret Foster (Texas A&M University) and Sarah
Jewell (Rutgers University), this book is intended for
“training librarians new to systematic reviews, for
those developing a new systematic review service, for
those wanting to establish protocols for a current
service, and as a reference for those conducting
reviews or running a service” [2].

Foster and Jewell guide the reader through the steps
of the systematic review process, or as they describe it,
PIECES (which stands for Planning, Identifying,
Evaluating, Collecting and combining, Explaining, and
Summarizing), which many of you may recognize
from Margaret Foster's webinar series of the same
name, which ran from February to August 2017 [3].
The book is structured around the PIECES framework,
with chapters on the following topics: introduction to
systematic reviews; finding, evaluating and applying
reviews in various disciplines; the reference interview;
team dynamics and data management; database
searching; grey literature searching; case studies of
review questions and searches conducted to address
them; study selection and critical appraisal; data
extraction; writing; systematic review services; and
librarianship and systematic reviews.

While different authors write each chapter, the
voice and tone of the book remains consistent
throughout. The book is well formatted, with an
"Objectives" section setting the tone and expectations
for each chapter, "Action Boxes" prompting the reader
to complete small assignments in order to more deeply
interact with the content, and a variety of very helpful
tables peppered throughout. I also appreciated the
effort made by the authors and editors to cover not
only the disciplines of medical and health sciences, but
also environmental science, social sciences, and even
software engineering.

Readers will appreciate the practical aspects of
many of the chapters, since they have a level of detail
that is not always feasible in program description
articles or webinars. For example, the chapter on
systematic review services addresses multiple aspects
of the systematic review service: librarian
competencies, types of service models, and different
libraries' approaches to service provision (presented
through case studies). The chapter also provides a
logic model for conceptualizing service initiation,
prompting the reader to consider and enumerate the
rationale, aims, resources required, specific services to
be provided, and measurable outcomes before
launching their service.

Chapter 4, “Planning the Review Part 2: Team Dynamics and Data Management,” was my favourite. It addresses topics that are discussed infrequently in our methodological literature and which are often either learned by trial and error or by osmosis from more experienced librarians. When discussing project data management, for example, the authors describe systematic review management tools and their advantages. When recommending a tool, they highlight very important thoughts to keep in mind when sitting down with researchers in those initial reference interviews, including type of synthesis, desired software features, licensing considerations, and user training and technical support.

While I enjoyed the majority of the book and found
it very helpful, should Foster and Jewell publish
subsequent editions, I would love to see an entire
chapter dedicated solely to critical appraisal. I found it
a little confusing to have it addressed in the same
chapter as study selection, rather than after data
extraction. Anecdotally, I think many librarians
(myself included) feel that their critical appraisal skills
could be improved, and having a chapter focused on
the main concepts and tools for critical appraisal
would be helpful in addressing this knowledge gap.

I would highly recommend this book to early career
health sciences librarians or to health sciences
institutions that frequently train MLIS students. More

experienced systematic searchers will be familiar with
much of the content of this book; however, many of
the tables could be quite helpful in framing
conversations with researchers during reference
interviews or training, and would be worth reviewing.
For directors or managers seeking to formalize or
improve a systematic review service, this book will
also be of interest.

**Statement of Competing Interests**

No competing interests declared.

Sarah May Visintini

Research Information Specialist
CADTH

Ottawa, ON

Email: sarahvi@cadth.ca

*The views expressed here are my own and do not
necessarily represent the views of my employer*
*CADTH.*

References

1. HTAi. About SuRe Info.[Internet]. [cited 2017 Nov 26]. Available from: https://vortal.htai.org/?q=about/sure-info

2. Foster M, Jewell S. Assembling the pieces of a systematic review. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield; 2017.

3. National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The pieces of systematic review with Margaret Foster webinar series [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2017 Nov 26]. Available from: https://nnlm.gov/scr/professional-development/systematic-review-series