How to Screen Titles and Abstracts in Systematic Review

Online Research Club – Dr Nguyen Tien Huy

I. Keep in mind the inclusion and exclusion criteria:

+ Inclusion criteria: (specific for each study)

+ Exclusion criteria: (specific for each study)

II. Then open Endnote collection, read both title and abstract of the article. Use our criteria to
determine whether you should include or exclude an article for the next step.

Include a reference = 1

Exclude a reference = 0

You don’t have to give Reason for including but you have to have a reason for excluding a
reference.

III. Some situations:

1. Has title but no abstract:

- Search in the internet to find its abstract, if not available then

- Read the title again, if the title has keywords (in the Inclusion criteria) then we should keep this
article. State in the Reason column of the Excel file as “Consider.”

2. Has no title and or abstract:

-In Endnote, look for the name of journal, vol number, issue number, page number. Then search
the journal on the internet. In the website of the journal, find its archive, find the vol, issue, and
page.

-If you can’t find anything, you can state “Consider” in the Reason column.

IV. You need to be able to recognize these types of publications:

- Original research paper, primary/secondary research

- Review, systematic review, meta-analysis

- Letter, correspondence, thesis, conference, book chapter, poster

- Case report

1
How to recognize:

-Search the article in the internet, read the title, header, and footer of the article to see whether
there is any keywords above.

-If an article has only 1 or 2 authors, there is a high chance that it is a review, so be careful.

- For PubMed only: Click "Publication types, MeSH terms, substances" and look at the type of
reference.

Example: