Introduction

Systematic reviews need the right people at the right time because they ‘benefit from team working, and co-production is an essential part of high-quality research synthesis’ (Uttley and Montgomery, 2017). The review team should therefore be multidisciplinary and include methodological experts, content experts and information specialists (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Close collaboration is not only required between project team members but also between information specialists.

The first part of this chapter summarises the different phases of collaboration between information specialists and the review authors, discusses some of the challenges, highlights the main issues, and describes the different work settings. The next part of the chapter explains why collaboration between information specialists is required, in which areas and to what extent. The section on information specialists starts with collaboration on a day-to-day level and then looks at the value of local, national and international collaboration for developing information retrieval methods. We are grateful to Justin Clark for contributing Case study 11.2.

Collaboration between information specialists and review Authors

Collaboration in the different phases of a systematic review

This section shows how information specialists are involved in the production of a systematic review and the different points of collaboration with review authors. Successful collaboration requires detailed project co-ordination, as set out in Table 11.1.

Project planning phase

The first stage of a new project will usually be tricky and information specialists should remember that ‘the initial planning stages of the review can be difficult but with guidance can lead to starting a valuable research project’ (Foster and Jewell, 2017). Systematic reviews usually start with the writing of a protocol setting out how it will be conducted. The protocol is an opportunity to discuss who will perform each role, as well as being a technical document detailing the specific methods to be used. A good protocol will include, among other things, information on the roles and responsibilities of the review team members, the research question, the information retrieval and data analysis methods to be applied and the project timetable (O'Connor et al., 2014).