Systematic reviews

What is a systematic review?

A systematic review attempts to gather all the empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question.

It uses explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view to minimizing bias, thus providing more reliable findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made. 

The key characteristics of a systematic review are:

  • a clearly stated set of objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies
  • an explicit, reproducible methodology
  • a systematic search that attempts to identify all studies that would meet the eligibility criteria
  • an assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies, for example through the assessment of risk of bias
  • a systematic presentation, and synthesis, of the characteristics and findings of the included studies

The following document compares elements of a systematic review and of a comprehensive literature review:

Sources

Steps of a systematic review

Researchers conducting a systematic review need to follow various predetermined yet flexible and iterative stages that describe necessary steps required to produce a rigorous synthesis of the literature.

Steps include:

 

Acknowledgement: This guide is based on the PIECES acronym developed by M. J. Foster and S. T. Jewell in their book Assembling the PIECES of a systematic review: A guide for librarians (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

Online course

Cochrane Interactive Learning

This online course provides over 10 hours of self-directed learning on conducting a systematic review.

To access this course, you need to create a Cochrane account by following steps outlined in this document:

Contact

For more information, please contact:

Changer