Symposium G1

'SLRtool: a tool to support Systematic Literature Reviews'

Presenter: Balbir Barn (School of Science & Technology)

Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) are used in the medical field to produce unbiased accounts of specific research topics. SLRs are increasingly being used in other fields as well. In this talk we present SLRtool, a multi-user, web-based, open-source tool that support the SLR process in a range of research areas.

Outline:  Systematic literature reviews are an increasingly important research strategy for extracting new knowledge from existing research data. The SLR process originated from the medical field but it is now common among many disciplines and it can be used as part of all literature review processes carried out both by researchers and by students at all levels. SLRs provide rigorous definitions and supporting documentation for all phases of a literature review, from research question, to description of research strategy, criteria to be used for assessing each published study and criteria on how to report the results.

This talk will introduce SLRtool, a tool aimed at supporting systematic literature reviews both individually and as a group project. Indeed, the tool is web based and it allows the creation of teams around a single SLR. In addition, the tool supports the definition of research questions, quality and inclusion criteria, automatic extraction of resources from on-line databases such as Google Scholar, management of on-line discussions and export of the results.

This session will present background material and will also provide a quick demo of how the tool can be used, both by researchers and by students.

Key words: Collaborative research process, Systematic Literature Reviews

Session learning outcomes: Appreciation of the SLR process. Some familiarity with the tool