Chapter 6 – Managing People and Data – Systematic Reviews in Health Research

Eliane Rohner, Julia Bohlius, Bruno R. da Costa, Sven Trelle

Abstract

Conducting a systematic review is a team effort. Open and clear communication is therefore critical. The management of people is as important as the management of data for the success of a systematic review. The data assembled for a systematic review are generally complex and a dedicated data management system that covers all relevant steps, from literature screening to data extraction, should be in place. Reviewers may want to manage their data on paper or electronically, with dedicated systematic review data management software or a generic database or spreadsheet software. Electronic solutions have several advantages, but lack the flexibility of a paper-based system.

Corrections

Resources

List of freeware tools Download

Template for data extraction form (binary endpoints)Download

Template for data extraction form (continuous endpoints)Download

Template for data extraction form (data on interventions)Download

Practicals

There are no practicals for this chapter.

Author affiliations

Eliane Rohner

Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Julia Bohlius

Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Bruno R. da Costa

Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Applied Health Research Cantre (AHRC), St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Sven Trelle

CTU Bern, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

How to cite this chapter?

For the printed version of the book

Rohner, E., Bohlius, J., da Costa, B.R. and Trelle, S. (2022). Chapter 6. Managing people and data. In: Systematic Reviews in Health Research: Meta-analysis in Context (eds M. Egger, J.P.T. Higgins and G. Davey Smith), pp 91-108. Hoboken, NJ : Wiley.