D: Screening Step

There are two types of screening

1: Screening the title and abstract of search results

The searches are sensitive it means you will get lots of noise and irrelevant results. That’s why we always have to screen the search results based on your eligibility criteria (inclusion and exclusion criteria).

If you are using a reference management program such as EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, CITAVI, etc., then you could create three folders or groups:

1.1: Relevant

If the search result is relevant, then you add it to this folder.

1.2: Irrelevant

If the search result is irrelevant, then you add it to this folder

1.3: Unclear

If the information provided in title and abstract is no enough to decide the relevancy of the results, then you keep it in this folder.

2: Screening the full-texts

You will need to get the full-texts of Relevant and Unclear folders and check if they are meeting your eligibility criteria. There are several ways to get the full-texts.

When you are in full-texts screening step, you will end up having some or all of the following folders/groups:

2.1: Included studies

If the study meets your eligibility criteria, then you add it to this folder.

2.2: Excluded studies

If the study does not meet your eligibility criteria, then you add it to this folder.

2.3: Ongoing studies

If the study meets your eligibility criteria but you realize that it has not been finished yet, then you add it to this folder.

2.4 Awaiting studies

Sometimes, you can’t decide if the study should be included or excluded because of lack/insufficiency of the information provided in the full text. Then you add the study to this folder.