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What is a systematic review?
A systematic review is a type of literature review that follows certain standards and guidelines. The review involves a rigorous, well documented, transparent, and reproducible search and selection process, where researchers are attempting to gather and synthesize all evidence that answers a specific clinical question.
There a variety of standards and guidelines geared towards conducting and writing systematic reviews. Some publishers may require that certain guidelines and/or standards are followed.
Systematic Reviews contain 5 major parts with many steps in each of those sections. Use the table below to learn more about these specific steps and tools that can help you through the review process.
Prefer a visual flowchart? Check out: A 24-step guide on how to design, conduct, and successfully publish a systematic review and meta-analysis in medical research.
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Steps |
Tools & Resources |
Tips & Examples |
| Formulate your question using PICO | Cochrane Handbook ch. 3 | |
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Determine if there is already a review on this topic |
If a systematic review already exists or is in process, then conducting an additional review may result in publication challenges. |
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Create and register a protocol |
Checklist: PRISMA-P |
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Define your inclusion and exclusion criteria |
Example: Include only randomized controlled trials and Exclude publications not in English |
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Identify 3 to 10 “gold standard” articles (GSAs) |
These are ideal articles that you want for your review. |
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Identify databases for search |
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FINDING THE SEARCH TERMS |
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Subject heading frequency analysis of gold standard articles |
Use subject explosion when fitting. |
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Term Harvesting |
Include synonyms and acronyms. |
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Create search string 1 |
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Combine terms with Boolean operators and add in advanced searching features: truncation, proximity searching, field codes, and wild cards.
Example: (diabet* OR (MH "Diabetes Mellitus+")) AND (obes* OR (MH "Obesity+") OR overweight* OR (MH "Overweight+")) AND (((old* OR elderly OR geriatric OR aged) N3 (wom?n OR female*)) OR ((MH "Aged+") AND (MH "Female"))) |
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Test search string 1 against gold standard articles, if GSAs are not found modify the search string |
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Translate search string to remaining databases |
Polyglot Search, Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies, or Systematic Review Information Retrieval Checklist |
Remember controlled vocabulary will and advanced search features may vary between databases. |
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RUNNING THE SEARCH |
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Run all database searches on the same day |
Note date ran and the number of results from each database. |
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Search for grey literature, hand searching, etc. (if applicable) |
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SCREENING & SELECTING STUDIES |
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Deduplicate Results |
EndNote, Zotero and RefWorks have the ability to detect duplicates. Note number of duplicates removed! |
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Title & Abstract Screening |
Rayyan, Screenatron, or Disputatron |
Use a minimum of two independent reviewers. |
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Full text Screening |
HSL ILLiad (if necessary) |
Use a minimum of two independent reviewers. |
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Quality & Risk of Bias Assessment |
DistillerSR, Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, CEBM Critical Appraisal Tools, or NIH Study Quality Assessment Tools |
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Document the Process |
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SYNTHESIZING DATA & WRITING REVIEW |
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Extract data |
Cochrane Handbook 5 or Data Extraction Template (Cochrane Review Group) |
Have two reviewers complete the data extraction and develop a plan for resolving conflicts. Determine the data you need to collect, ideal method to collect this data, and a tool to organize data. Finally run a pilot and adjust if necessary. |
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Synthesize findings (Qualitative or Quantitative) |
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Write & Publish Review |
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