What is a Systematic Review?
A systematic review is a methodical and comprehensive literature synthesis focused on a well-formulated research question. Its aim is to identify and synthesize all of the scholarly research on a particular topic, including both published and unpublished studies. Systematic reviews are conducted in an unbiased, reproducible way to provide evidence for practice and policy-making and identify gaps in research. They may involve a meta-analysis.
Steps in a Systematic Review
1. Identify your research question.
- Formulate a clear, well-defined research question of appropriate scope. Define your terminology.
- Consider using a framework like PICO to define you question scope.
2. Define inclusion and exclusion criteria.
- Clearly state the criteria you will use to determine whether or not a study will be included in your search.
3. Search for studies.
- Design comprehensive search strategies across a variety of databases and run your searches.
- Collect ALL of the retrieved records from each search into a reference manager.
4. Select studies for inclusion based on pre-defined criteria.
- Start with a title/abstract screening to remove studies that are clearly not related to your topic.
5. Extract data from included studies.
- Use a spreadsheet, or systematic review software, to extract all relevant data from each included study.
6. Evaluate the risk of bias of included studies.
- Use a Risk of Bias tool (such as the Cochrane RoB Tool) to assess the potential biases of studies in regards to study design and other factors.
7. Present results and assess the quality of evidence.
- Clearly present your findings, including detailed methodology (such as search strategies used, selection criteria, etc.) such that your review can be easily updated in the future with new research findings.
- Perform a meta-analysis if the studies allow.
Systematic Reviews vs. Literature Reviews: What's the difference?
