Evidence-based biomedical research in Sub-Saharan Africa: how library and information science professionals contribute to systematic reviews and meta-analyses (original) (raw)

Objective: This study investigated the contributions of library and information science (LIS) professionals to systematic reviews and meta-analyses with authors from Sub-Saharan Africa. It also investigated how the first author’s address and type of collaboration affected the involvement of LIS professionals in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Methods: Bibliographic data of systematic reviews with author(s) from the forty-six Sub-Saharan African countries was retrieved from MEDLINE. Content and bibliometric analyses were performed on the systematic reviews' full-texts and bibliographic data, respectively, to identify the contributions of LIS professionals and collaboration patterns. Results: Beyond traditional roles as search strategy developers and searchers, the LIS professionals participated in article retrieval, database selection, reference management, draft review, review conceptualization, manuscript writing, technical support, article screening and selection, data e...