Evidence Synthesis for Business Librarians

Welcome to the Evidence Synthesis (ES) guide for Business Librarians.

Here you will find:

• Relevant library guides highlighting ES resources and services support for social sciences / business researchers.
• An aggregate list of ES research in which a business or social sciences librarian supported an ES project.
• Selected ES research rooted in the social sciences and/or business disciplines.
• Additional resources, including the ever-informative:
  • ESMIG's Evidence Synthesis Resources Guide 
  • Evidence Synthesis Institute Pressbooks Site

For feedback on this guide or the research herein, please contact the guide editor(s).

Liu, G. (2021). Systematic reviews in business: Are business librarians ready? Academic BRASS, 16(1). https://www.ala.org/rusa/sites/ala.org.rusa/files/content/sections/brass/Publications/Acad_BRASS/2021_spring_liu.pdf

Premji, Z., Splenda, R., & Young, S. (2022). An exploration of business librarian participation in knowledge synthesis reviews. College & Research Libraries, 83(2), 314. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.83.2.314

Splenda, R. (2020). Systematic Reviews in Business & Management: A New Role for Business Librarians. https://doi.org/10.3998/ticker.16481003.0004.205

In general, evidence synthesis is still relatively new and not widely used in business & management research. While this presents tremendous opportunity, it also means that there isn't a lot of available guidance. For example, while the Campbell Collaborative is the main network for evidence synthesis in the social sciences, they don't yet have guidance specific to business & management. 

In addition, the nature of business research itself presents some challenges to effectively using this methodology. For example, as Grace Liu explains, studies in this field are often narrative and qualitative, which can lead to subjectivity and bias. 

Furthermore, Zahra Premji points out that business researchers are often inclined to use journal impact factor as an inclusion criteria, which can cause selection bias. As well, many business researchers will include "systematic review" in the title of their paper, in order to manipulate the market for citations--turns out a vast majority of these articles are actually "systematic literature reviews" (see SPAR-4-SLR).

Lastly, Premji recounts how business & management topics are not well-indexed. The terminology can be quite varied and additionally, the databases business researchers use tend to differ from those used in other disciplines and they can require expertise in order to be used effectively.