Congratulations, you are in the last steps of your systematic review!
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SYNTHESIZING DATA & WRITING THE REVIEW |
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Extract data |
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Synthesize findings (Qualitative or Quantitative) |
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Write & Publish Review |
MECIR (Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews) Standards for Data Exptraction include:
|
Standard |
Statement | Mandatory or Highly Desired | Cochrane Handbook |
|---|---|---|---|
| C44 | Collect characteristics of the included studies in sufficient detail to populate a table of 'Characteristics of included studies'. | Mandatory | 5.3.1 |
| C45 | Use (at least) two people working independently to extract study characteristics from reports of each study, and define in advance the process for resolving disagreements. | Highly Desired | 5.5.2 |
| C46 | Use (at least) two people working independently to extract outcome data from reports of each study, and define in advance the process for resolving disagreements. | Mandatory | 5.5.2 |
| C49 | Seek key unpublished information that is missing from reports of included studies. | Highly Desired | 5.2.3 |
| C50 | If a study is included with more than two intervention arms, include in the review only the interventions that meet the eligibility criteria. |
Mandatory | 5.3.6 |
| C51 | Compare magnitude and direction of effects reported by studies with how they are presented in the review, taking account of legitimate differences. | Mandatory | 5.3.6 |
Information taken from: https://community.cochrane.org/sites/default/files/uploads/MECIR%20Version%20February%202022.pdf
To reduce errors and bias have two reviewers complete the data extraction and develop a plan for resolving conflicts. Determine the data you need to collect (consider if you will be conducting a qualitative synthesis only or if you will be including a meta-analysis), ideal method to collect this data, and a tool to organize data. Finally run a pilot and adjust if necessary. Commonly gathered fields include:
Checklist of items to consider for data extraction (see image) - 
Also consider exploring:
Covidence includes the option to extract data as part of the process and offers users the choice between two options.
Writing your systematic review will include all details that would allow a reader to replicate it. Various guidelines offer steps to follow when writing the review. For example, based on PRISMA and IOM guidelines the following information needs to be included in the methods section:
Additional resources include:
