Systematic Reviews & Other Syntheses

After the first level of screening (titles/abstracts), you will need to obtain full-text journal articles for the second level of screening. Some full-text articles may be free or open access, but the majority will likely be made available via Queen's University Library. Articles not otherwise available can be requested through the library’s interlibrary loan service by completing a RACER request form.

There are a few different ways you can go about locating full-text articles that are available via Queen's University Library:

1. Use Google Scholar via the library website to search for each article title individually. If the full-text article is available, a link to the full-text article should be provided to the right of the citation information.

2. Use the library’s discovery tool Omni to search for each article title individually. If the full-text article is available, it should be retrieved by the search. In many cases there will be an “Available Online” option for journal articles that the library provides access to.

3. Search the library’s discovery tool Omni for the Journal that the article is published in. In many cases there will be an “Available Online” option for journals that the library provides access to. Proceed to the journal website and use the article citation information to locate the volume, issue, page numbers and/or article title of interest (hint: there is usually a tab for “Archives” or “Previous Issues”).   

4. If you are using Covidence to facilitate the screening process (highly recommended!), then EndNote desktop (the citation manager that Queen’s provides institutional access to), can act as an intermediary for retrieving full text articles in bulk (refer to the Bulk PDF Upload instructions available from Covidence). Note: individual full text articles can also be added manually in Covidence.

If the library does not provide access to the journals/articles that you are trying to access, you can request full-text articles via the library’s interlibrary loan service:

• Complete a request using the Blank Request Form.
• You will be asked to select a Pickup Location, however PDFs will be sent electronically.
• The turnaround time for receiving PDFs via email can be as quick as one or two business days, however, if the article is quite dated, it might take longer to track down and receive.
• Generally, there is no charge for this service. If any charges arise, you will be contacted by the interlibrary loans department prior to your request being processed.