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Health Sciences at ASU

Resources & Tools for: Behavioral Health, Biomedical Informatics, Evidence Based Practice, Exercise & Wellness, Global Health, Health Care Delivery, Healthcare, Health Innovation, Health Professional, Health Sciences, Kinesiology, Nursing, Nutrition

What type of review should I conduct?

What type of review should you do? It depends on many factors, but generally

  • if you have a broad question or want to look at a topic overall, a Scoping Review may be the right choice
  • if you need an answer quickly, especially for public health or policy questions, you may want to do a Rapid Review
  • If you have to know the answer and it has to be the best answer possible, for a specific and focused question, you may prefer a Systematic Review

For more information:

What kind of systematic review should I conduct? A proposed typology and guidance for systematic reviewers in the medical and health sciences.

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis)

PRISMA provides guidance and checklists for elements of a systematic review. They also have information for scoping reviews and an editable template for a PRISMA flowchart, also known as a PRISMA diagram, used to display the steps in your search and screening process of a systematic review.

Systematic Reviews

Cochrane training video (17 min)

After using this resource, you should be able to...

  • Recognize the difference between a systematic and non-systematic review
  • Identify the elements of a forest plot
  • Understand basic principles of meta-analysis

Scoping Reviews

Cochrane Training Video (7:30 min)

This video explains what are scoping reviews and provides some examples of this type of knowledge synthesis

Rapid Reviews

Cochrane Training video (11 min)

This video provides an overview of rapid review methods based on the WHO publication ‘Rapid reviews to strengthen health policy and systems: a practical guide’

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.