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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

Documents and Handouts

What is a Systematic Review?

"Systematic reviews, as the name implies, typically involve a detailed and comprehensive plan and search strategy derived a priori, with the goal of reducing bias by identifying, appraising, and synthesizing all relevant studies on a particular topic." (Uman, 2011)

Systematic Reviews (SRs) are a popular way of synthesizing current knowledge on a topic and are often used to support Evidence Based Practice (EBP).

They require a number of very specific steps and must be carefully documented to a reproducible degree.

There are various methodologies for producing a SR, but all include mandatory steps:

  1.  A clear research question
  2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria
  3. A detailed literature search strategy
  4. A publicly registered protocol (a priori or before the main research begins)
  5. Managed search results/article screening process (double blinded screening for health sciences SR)
  6. Studies selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria
  7. Selected studies go through critical appraisal to ensure they meet quality standards
  8. Data extracted from included studies
  9. Results are synthesized and reported

Checklists, Standards and Guidelines for Systematic Reviews

PRISMA, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses includes well established checklists for ensuring a complete and well conducted Systematic Review as well as a downloadable PRISMA flow diagram, used to report the details of the SR process.

Besides PRISMA, there are a number of guidelines and standards available to help guide your Systematic Review. Reporting which standards you followed is an intrinsic part of a systematic review.