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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Res. Metr. Anal.
Sec. Research Methods
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frma.2024.1430355

Evaluating the Adoption of Handsearching, Citation Chasing, and Screening Tools in Education Research: A Survey Study

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
  • 2 University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
  • 3 University of Perugia, Perugia, Umbria, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The rapid development of software tools to assist systematic reviewers has led to varying degrees of adoption and selection among researchers. However, the actual usage patterns of these tools, their preferred features, and the criteria for selecting the most suitable tools remain unclear. To understand these aspects, we collected 175 responses from researchers across different continents. In terms of handsearching, despite new tools developed, our findings reveal that manual handsearching remains prevalent among more than half of the participants. Databases are the most popular tools for citation searching, followed by citation management tools and spreadsheets. This reliance on citation management tools and spreadsheets is concerning as they are not specifically designed for systematic reviews. The primary factors influencing tool selection are the research environment and ease of use. Barriers stopping researchers from adopting alternative tools include limited awareness, challenges in learning new tools, and the financial costs associated with acquiring licenses. Moreover, researchers located in Europe show greater familiarity with a wider range of tools compared to their North American counterparts. This preregistered study contributes valuable insights into the tool usage patterns of education researchers, emphasizing the importance of promoting awareness and facilitating the broader adoption of existing tools.

    Keywords: Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Survey, screening tools, citation searching tools, handsearching tools, Education

    Received: 09 May 2024; Accepted: 08 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Pellegrini, Marsili and Neitzel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qiyang Zhang, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.