Undergraduate involvement in published evidence syntheses: A preliminary exploration
2024-06-12 , Charleswood B
Language: English

Introduction
We are seeing an increase in undergraduate health sciences students being advised by their supervisors to publish evidence synthesis papers to enhance their medical school applications. This presents many challenges for both the students and the health sciences librarian. As we explored how best to support these students, we started by asking how often students are listed as authors in published review articles. Primary research questions include: How many review articles have Laurier affiliated authors published? How many included student authors? How do evidence syntheses vary by department?

Methods
Six databases covering multiple disciplines were searched for titles including the word review and our institutional affiliation (n=909). Being a smaller institution, this broad scope was possible and was designed to enable analysis of disciplinary differences. Covidence was used to remove duplicates (n= 478) and support the 2-step screening process. Data extraction (n= 147) included bibliographic information, department, student status, librarian involvement, type of review, type of publication, and methodology.

Results
Data analysis is ongoing at the time of submission, but there are some preliminary results. The most prolific departments were psychology (18%), business (17%), social work (15%) and health sciences (13%). Students contributed to 35% of the articles. The majority were doctoral students (55%) but 23% were undergraduates, mainly health sciences. Students most often wrote scoping reviews (31%). Librarians were acknowledged in 28% of the publications.

Discussion
Understanding undergraduate involvement in evidence syntheses will enable us to develop appropriate policies and resources for sustainable and ethical support.

Liaison librarian for Health Sciences, Kinesiology and Biology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

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