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Systematic Reviews: Home

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

Welcome

 

This guide contains a general overview and practical tips for conducting a systematic review, up to the screening stage.

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 follows a methodical process of searching and evidence selection to minimise bias and present findings.

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

What is involved in a systematic review?

 

The steps involved in a systematic review are as follows: 

  1. Define a question
  2. Write a protocol
  3. Design the search
  4. Run the search
  5. Export articles and deduplicate
  6. Screening
  7. Data extraction
  8. Study appraisal
  9. Interpret and synthesise
  10. Report

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

As these steps suggest, conducting a systematic review is an involved process.

Click below to see how the work involved for a systematic review compares against a narrative review.

Handouts and templates