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Systematic and Other Reviews: What is a Systematic Review

This guide contains information about systematic reviews and links to resources to help you conduct one.

What is a Systematic Review?

 

A systematic review aims to answer a specific research question using the best available evidence.

As the name suggests, a systematic review requires a methodical process to minimise bias and synthesise all available data points.

If done well, systematic reviews are highly reliable and can be used to inform policy, guidelines and decision-making.

Stages of a Systematic Review

 

The steps involved in a systematic review are as follows: 

  1. Defining a question
  2. Writing a protocol
  3. Designing the search
  4. Running the search
  5. Exporting articles and deduplicating
  6. Screening
  7. Data extraction
  8. Study appraisal
  9. Interpretation and synthesis
  10. Reporting

There may be disciplinary differences and norms for how particular steps are carried out. 

If you still aren't sure whether a systematic review is right for your research, use the menu below to compare different review types.

Other Types of Reviews

Are you completing a different type of review?

 

Check out some of these helpful guides:

Learnings

  • A systematic review is a type of literature review that comes with a specific methodology.
  • Systematic reviews are different to scoping and narrative reviews. Each has its own purpose.
  • Established protocols for systematic reviews include PRISMA, Cochrane and JBI (Johanna Briggs Institute).

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