What is a systematic review?
A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. (http://www.cochrane.org/faq/general)
How is a systematic review different from traditional review articles?
Systematic Reviews and Traditional Narrative Reviews Compared:
Good Quality Systematic Reviews | Traditional Narrative Reviews | |
---|---|---|
Deciding on review question |
Start with clear question to be answered or hypothesis to be tested |
May also start with clear question to be answered, but they more often involve general discussion of subject with no stated hypothesis |
Searching for relevant studies |
Strive to locate all relevant published and unpublished studies to limit impact of publication and other biases |
Do not usually attempt to locate all relevant literature |
Deciding which studies to include and exclude |
Involve explicit description of what types of studies are to be included to limit selection bias on behalf of reviewer |
Usually do not describe why certain studies are included and others excluded |
Assessing study quality |
Examine in systematic manner methods used in primary studies, and investigate potential biases in those studies and sources of heterogeneity between study results |
Often do not consider differences in study methods or study quality |
Synthesizing study results |
Base their conclusions on those studies which are most methodologically sound |
Often do not differentiate between methodologically sound and unsound studies |
Literature Reviews & Systematic Reviews - NYU Washington Square: https://guides.nyu.edu/reviews
IOM Standards
Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews. Consensus Report. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2011 March 23.
The PRISMA Statement
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group (2009). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Med 6(6): e1000097. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed1000097