Systematic Review: Decolonisation of Sources
This guide presents tools and advice for conducting systematic reviews.
Decolonising your data sources for Systematic reviews
What is decolonisation in Systematic Reviews?
"Decolonizing research means centering concerns and world views of non-Western individuals" (Thambinathan and Kinsella, 2021)
Many of the databases used in Systematic Reviews come from publishers based in the Global North. This can result in these databases having an inbuilt bias in that the information that they contain is skewed toward English language articles and from developed countries. This bias can mean that valuable research in other languages and from countries in the Global South are underrepresented in these databases.
Given that the aim of a Systematic Review is to discover all the literature on a given topic there is a distinct probability that researchers are therefore not discovering some of the relevant literature.
This page is an attempt to encourage decolonisation of the search process by highlighting resources that can be used to ensure a fuller exploration of the research literature.
- Global Index MedicusThe Global Index Medicus (GIM) provides worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low-middle income countries. The main objective is to increase the visibility and usability of this important set of resources.
- Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)Index to >2.5m research theses available open access – worldwide; harvested from repositories
- Global Electronic Theses and DissertationsNetworked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization that promotes creation, access to, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) from academic institutions around the world.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar consists primarily of scholarly articles including journal papers, conference papers, technical reports, theses, pre-prints, post-prints, abstracts and court opinions. Google Scholar automatically includes scholarly works from Google Book Search.
- The LensFree & Open Patent and Scholarly Search
- Research4LifeResearch4Life has five content collections: Research for Health (Hinari), Research in Agriculture (AGORA), Research in the Environment (OARE), Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) and Research for Global Justice (GOALI).
- African Index Medicus (AIM)The World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA), has produced AIM as an international index to African health literature and information sources.
- African Journals OnlineAfrican Journals OnLine (AJOL) is an online service that provides access to African-published research, and increases worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.
- African Education Research Database (AERD)AERD has been developed by the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge, in partnership with ESSA. The database aims to raise the visibility of African research, consolidate the evidence base for policy and practice, and inform future research priorities and partnerships.
- AfricArXivAfricArXiv is a free community-led digital archive for African research. It provides a platform for African scientists to upload their working papers, preprints, accepted manuscripts (post-prints), and published papers.
- Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR)WHO Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR) comprises about 295,221 citations for health and biomedical sciences literature published in 1,123 peer-reviewed journals from 20 countries in the Region.
- AfricabibAfricaBib is a collection of Africana social science titles, presented in one easily accessible location on the internet. It is the culmination of over forty years of Africana research.
- Africa BibliographyThe Africa Bibliography is an authoritative guide to works in African studies published under the auspices of the International African Institute annually since 1984.
- African Digital Research RepositoriesThis is a list of known repositories within the African continent has been compiled by the International African Institute as a service to African studies research and scholarship in line with our remit to promote the dissemination of knowledge from and on Africa.
- Bangladesh Journals OnlineBangladesh Journals OnLine (BanglaJOL) is a service to provide access to Bangladesh published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.
- Index Medicus for the South-East Asia Region (IMSEAR)Index Medicus for South-East Asia Region (IMSEAR) is an archive of selected publications in health sciences in the WHO South-East Asia Region.
- IndiaRxivIndiaRxiv – A Preprints Repository Service for India
- J-StageJ-STAGE is a platform for scholarly publications in Japan. It is developed and managed by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) with the aim to rapidly circulate research in science, technology, humanities and social sciences in Japan.
- Mongolia Journals OnlineMongolia Journals OnLine (MongoliaJOL) is a service to provide access to Mongolian published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.
- Nepal Journals OnlineNepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL) is a service to provide access to Nepalese published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.
- PakMediNetPakMediNet has the aim of promote Pakistani Based Medical Research and Pakistani Medical Journals on the Internet.
- Sri Lanka Journals OnlineSLJOL is a database of journals published in Sri Lanka, covering the full range of academic disciplines. The objective of SLJOL is to give greater visibility to the participating journals, and to the research they convey.
- Vietnam Journals OnlineVietnam Journals Online (VJOL) is a database that allows readers to access scientific knowledge published in Vietnam and enhance the world's understanding of Vietnamese scholarship. Vietnam.
- Western Pacific Region Index Medicus (WPRO)The Western Pacific Region Index Medicus (WPRIM) is the regional bibliographic index of medical and health journals published by the Member States of the Western Pacific Region.
- SciELOSciELO is a multinational effort to provide open access to scientific research journals produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain.
- Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences literature LILACSLILACS contains more than 880 thousand records of peer reviewed journals, thesis and dissertations, government documents, annals of congresses and books, published since 1982.
- LiSSa : Littérature Scientifique en SantéSince 2014 the aim of LiSSa has been to offer an exhaustive database listing all French-language medical journals. It currently contains 531,189 articles from 240 journals.
- PerséePersée is a digital library of human and social sciences open access, mostly French-language scholarly journals, established by the Ministry of National Education of France.