Systematic Review Search Strategy Template

The pack is six files and one rule. Three documents hold the search: the strategy pasted per database, the reasoning behind every term and every limit, and a page on which of those facts expire and when. Three sheets hold the record: a term register scored against a seed set, a log with one row per database per run, and a yield sheet showing what each source actually bought. The rule is that nothing gets retyped. The protocol itself, registered before the first search runs, is the protocol registration pack.

Every sheet ships filled in for one illustrative review of manager mental-health training and sickness absence. Seven sources returned 4,833 records across two runs, deduplicating to 2,955 and ending in 19 included studies. CINAHL contributed 196 unique abstracts and no included studies. Citation searching contributed 7 unique records and 2 included studies. Those two rows are the argument for the yield sheet, and no reference manager can produce either of them once the records are imported.

PRISMA-S asks for each strategy copied and pasted exactly as run, the date of the last search, and the records identified from each source. A concept grid produces none of the three, because all three are properties of an event. Open the pack in River and the log gets written while the search runs. Or download the Word documents and CSV sheets and fill them in yourself, then hand the export to the screening pack, which turns those decisions into the PRISMA flow, and the extraction table once screening is done.