Comprehensive Literature Reviewing
In a complex world where a problem may have been addressed in many thousands of articles in the scientific literature, the press and grey literature and on the internet, getting the right answer can be hard. At HBC we comprehensively collect all references available, database them and then sort and review. We adopt a semi-systematic approach to literature reviewing in order to sort the wheat from the chaff rapidly to get the right answer. We work for both the governmental and private sectors and have reviewed a range of issues. These include advice on which pesticides work, what procedure to undertake prior to releasing a biological control agent, the risk posed by certain invasive insects, amongst others.
Recent examples of our work have dealt with invasive species and their risk to the UK, methods for the treating of wood and grain destined for export and the potential for using cold temperatures as a phytosanitary measure for apples. We have also advised a number of customers on how to establish cricket farms and also how to control virus problems within colonies.
Our process is simple and extensive:
- Develop search logics
- Search online databases (Web of Knowledge etc)
- Download all relevant citations and store in a bibliograhic database
- Repeat searches in Google Scholar
- Search for grey literature using web searches
- Download key references and use cited literature to identify any missed information
- Extract the useful information and start writing...