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Systematic Reviews

Systematic Reviews

Timeline

 

A systematic review usually takes 12 months or more to complete.

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  • The timeline can vary depending upon the number of databases you search, how many items are retrieved, the number of people on the team, your experience with the process, etc.

 

  • In planning your review, determine your project's overall timeline--the estimated completion date as well as specific dates for the milestones/steps of the entire process

 

  • As an example, here is a recommended timeline from the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

 

Assemble the Team

 

A systematic review can't be done alone.

It is a team effort. Having multiple reviewers minimizes bias and strengthens analysis. The team must have at least 3 members to avoid bias.

Establish a team with appropriate expertise and experience to conduct the systematic review:

  • Include expertise in the pertinent clinical content areas
  • Include expertise in systematic review methods
  • Include expertise in searching for relevant evidence
  • Include expertise in quantitative methods
  • Include other expertise as appropriate

 

Source: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews, chapter 2, 2011.

Formulate the Question 

 

Systematic reviews answer a specific and clearly defined question. 

  • Clarify the question of your systematic review and the rationale for the question.
  • Use the PICO framework to identify key concepts of the question.
  • Determine inclusion/exclusion criteria.

*Questions to consider as you refine your question*

Is there enough literature published on the topic to warrant a review? 

Systematic reviews are designed to analyze the evidence from many studies. Is there a body of evidence available to analyze, or does more primary research need to be done?

 

Has a systematic review already been published on your topic?

Search published literature for systematic reviews:

 

Is there a systematic review already in-process on your topic?

As many systematic review protocols are published, it is possible to search various resources to check if a systematic review is already being planned, or in-process, on your topic.

Write & Register the Protocol

 

"The protocol serves as a roadmap for your review!  The protocol must be completed before you start your review.

  • Sets out the scope of the systematic review
  • Details the methodology to be used throughout the review. 
  • Promotes transparency
  • Essential for efficient project management.
  • Some journals require you to submit your protocol along with your manuscript. 

 

Several resources are available to prepare a protocol:

 

Examples of protocols:

  • Cochrane Library (browse published protocols as well as published systematic reviews)
  • JBI Evidence Synthesis (browse published protocols as well as published systematic reviews and scoping reviews)

Protocol Templates

Register your Protocol

Prospero is the largest protocol registry for systematic reviews. Registration is free.

Registering your protocol will improve transparency/reproducibility as well as alerting other researchers of your intentions, so efforts are not duplicated.  

 

​Straus S, Moher D. Registering systematic reviews. CMAJ. 2010;182(1):13‐14. doi:10.1503/cmaj.081849

Stewart L, Moher D, Shekelle P. Why prospective registration of systematic reviews makes sense. Syst Rev. 2012;1:7. Published 2012 Feb 9. doi:10.1186/2046-4053-1-7

Data Management

 

Stay organized! 

Remember the entire systematic review process must be transparent and reproducible, so record keeping is incredibly important.

Before you start your systematic review determine the tools/software that you want your team to use to keep everyone on track!

 

Citation Management Software

Bibliographic software allows you to save large numbers of search results from various databases, remove duplicate results, annotate, and cite the papers.

NSU has an institutional subscription to EndNote. 

 

Systematic Review Software

Tools specifically designed to assist with managing, screening & extracting data 

  • You will need to keep track of whether an article meets your inclusion criteria and why. Excel spreadsheets organized by article and inclusion and exclusion criteria can work, but systematic review software has made the process much more streamlined.
  • Most of these software are compatible with EndNote, so once the deduplication process is complete in EndNote, the results can be exported to the selected software. 

 

Software comparisons:

Managing the selection process can be challenging, particularly in a large-scale systematic review that involves multiple reviewers. There are various free and subscription-based tools available that support the study selection process (Cochrane Handbook, 4.6.6.1)

 

  1. Van der Mierden, S., Tsaioun, K., Bleich, A. and Leenaars, C. (2019) Software tools for literature screening in systematic reviews in biomedical research, ALTEX - Alternatives to animal experimentation, 36(3), pp. 508-517. doi: 10.14573/altex.1902131.
  2. Wu, W., Akers, K., Hu, E., Sarkozy, A., & Vinson, P. (2018). Digital Tools for Managing Different Steps of the Systematic Review Process. Library Scholarly Publications. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/libsp/136 .