Scoping or Systematic Review Template

Scoping or Systematic Review Template
Scoping or Systematic Review Template

This doc was created to provide a flexible framework for students and researchers for performing a scoping review, or systematic review.

If you are doing a literature review or desktop research and don’t need to include/exclude items systematically, check out this literature review template.

If you’ve never used Coda before, don’t worry—for the most part, it is as simple as writing in any spreadsheet or document! For a general introduction, check out

The Learn Doc⁠

, which includes articles, videos, and exercises to turn you into a Coda pro.

What’s in this Doc?

Review Protocol⁠

- A space to keep your inclusion/exclusion criteria handy.

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Source Database⁠

- This is the main table containing an entry for each item to be reviewed.

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Screening⁠

- A customizable page for screening each article for inclusion.

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Coding⁠

- A customizable page for recording relevant information from each included article.

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Duplicates⁠

- Automatically identify and easily remove duplicate item.

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Ready to get started?

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Copy this doc

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Students and educators, after you have signed up, you can apply for a

free year of Coda's Pro plan.⁠

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How to use this doc

Set up

On the

Review Protocol⁠

page, enter the number of Reviewers per Item and reviewer information.

If you are not planning to screen sources (e.g., you’re doing a literature review and only adding items you are fairly certain you will use), it would be better to use the free

Literature Review Template⁠

. If you use this doc, not all features may work the way they should.

If you are working solo and will be screening items, set Reviewers per Item on the

Review Protocol⁠

page to 1.

If you are working with a team, indicate how many reviewers you want per item. Once an item has been reviewed by this many team members, it will no longer come up in Screening and the reviewer agreement will be automatically calculated.

If you are working with others for the review, share this doc with them with ‘Can edit’ permission. Once they’ve opened the doc the first time you’ll be able to add them as a User to the

Reviewers table⁠

An optional feature is to provide your institutional DOI URL, which will enable the ‘Open Article’ buttons to open DOI links through your institutional access. The URL should be formatted similar to ‘https://doi-org.library.institution.com’

If left blank, the ‘Open Article’ button will open DOIs through their standard URLs. If no DOI is provided, it will open the URL in the URL column. If neither is provided, the button will be grayed out.

Customizing the Screening/Coding forms

One of the best things about using a Coda doc is how easy it is to customize. What information you want to chart from your articles will vary depend on things like the type of review or the field/discipline. The Screening and Coding forms can be easily customized to suit your needs by tapping the three dots in the upper corner, then Edit Layout.

Exploring your Findings

Another powerful part of this doc is the

Findings⁠

page. Following the concept of atomic notes or zettels, while reading your articles, add each big idea, important quote, or question, etc. as a separate row in the Findings section, and use the Tags column to categorize into broader concepts or part of the work where it’s relevant. When you’re ready to write, pull up the

Findings⁠

page and filter the list to see all the information you’ve recorded for the topic!

Exporting your data

There are a few options for saving your data in other formats:

Add the Export Tables Pack

The Export Tables Pack allows you to add a button on the canvas. To use it:

1. Add the

Export Tables Pack⁠

to your doc.

2. Right-click the ‘Export Data’ button below then click in the Action section.

3. Press tab and follow the prompts to create an API key.

4. Once set up successfully, the button will turn blue. You can then drag and drop it onto the Source Database or another page, if desired.

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Export Data

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Copy and Paste Tables

Another option is to select a table and copy/paste it into Excel or Google Docs.

🔥Some final important technical notes

While Coda will automatically save your changes, this feature will not run when you have a row open. If you are editing an entry, make sure to close the row before exiting to commit it.

Columns in a table that begin with an underscore are used in formulas to make the template function correctly; deleting them make break certain filters or features, but you can right-click and ‘Hide’ the columns.

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Deleting Example Data

This template is pre-loaded with a small sample of articles so you can get a feel for how everything works, how the tables are connected, and the different template features. When you’re ready to get started with your own review, you can delete all the example data with the following button:

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Delete Example Items

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How the button works

It works by filtering and deleting rows where the title contains the words [EXAMPLE ITEM], so if you’ve mixed in any of your own items, they’ll be safe, or if you want to keep any of the sample items, just remove that bit from the title before pressing the button.

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For questions, feedback, or content updates, please feel free to connect on

Twitter @ShanleyMWeston⁠

or via

LinkedIn⁠

What’s in this Doc?

Ready to get started?

How to use this doc

Set up

Customizing the Screening/Coding forms

Exploring your Findings

Exporting your data