It is important to document your search and retrieval process throughout the review. In the beginning, this allows you to remember and document all the different ways you put your search statement together to refine your search. It is also important in the final stage when you have decided on the best search statement for your review and you need to include this in your methodology section.

The search process (including the sources searched, when, by whom, and using which terms) needs to be documented in enough detail throughout the process to ensure that it can be reported correctly in the review, to the extent that all the searches of all the databases are reproducible.

The PRISMA-Search (PRISMA-S), an extension to the PRISMA Statement, addresses the reporting of search strategies in systematic reviews. PRISMA-S provides detailed and specific examples for systematic review authors to report search methods and information sources in a clear, reproducible way. The checklist includes 16 reporting items.

'PRISMA-S Check list' by Melissa Rethlefsen, Ana Patricia Ayala, Shona Kirtley, Jonathan Koffel, and Siw Waffenschmidt, licensed under CC-By Attribution 4.0 International, https://www.prisma-statement.org/prisma-search

Access an accessible checklist online.

Creating an account for each database will allow you to save your searches and help with the process of documenting your search. You can also set up alerts in order to receive notifications when new articles, which match your search, have been indexed in the database.

Scopus video tutorial on saving searches and setting alerts

ProQuest tutorial on saving searches

ProQuest tutorial on setting alerts

Web of Science video tutorial on how to save searches

PubMed video tutorial on saving searches and setting alerts