Skip to Main Content
Conducting a Systematic Literature Review
Systematic Review Process Guides
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: a step-by-step guide via University of Edinburgh
If you are considering doing a systematic review or meta-analysis, this step-by-step guide aims to support you along the way. It explains the background to these methodologies, what is involved, and how to get started, keep going, and finish!
It will direct you to useful resources provided by CCACE researchers and external bodies. There is a ‘wiki’ section for you, and others who have been through the process, to add useful hints and tips, and up-to-date resources particularly relevant to researchers and students in CCACE.
Systematic Review Research Articles
From passively received wisdom to actively constructed knowledge: Teaching systematic review skills as a foundation of Evidence-Based Management (2014)
One of the four sources of evidence used in evidence-based management (EBMgt) is academic research. However, rather than taking evidence from single studies or arbitrarily selected studies, EBMgt uses findings from systematic reviews that methodically summarize the body of evidence relevant to a specific question. This allows for conclusions to be drawn about the quantity, quality, relevance, and meaning of the available evidence. Although conducting such reviews is important for EBMgt and academically, the skills required are rarely taught. Drawing on our experiences of teaching courses on conducting rapid systematic reviews to a range of students, we include four goals here. First, we describe the nature and purposes of systematic reviews and consider the multiple benefits of teaching students how to perform them. Second, we describe a course on rapid systematic reviews delivered to a group of master's students. Third, we report students' reactions to different aspects of the course and the outcomes for students and teachers. Last, we discuss the implications of these experiences for teaching systematic review skills across business school curricula and how they may in the future play a more prominent role in developing EBMgt skills in students and in management education more generally.
Introduction to systematic reviews and meta-analyses of therapeutic studies (2022)
A systematic review is a specific and reproducible method to search, identify, select, appraise, and summarize all studies relevant to a particular health care question. In this paper, we will review the concept of level of evidence, define the terms systematic review and meta-analysis, and outline the steps in performing a systematic review and meta-analysis with an illustrative example. We will also introduce some important concepts in systematic reviews and meta-analyses like heterogeneity, publication bias, forest plots, and quality assessment. Finally, this review will focus on systematic reviews addressing therapeutic research questions.
Introduction to systematic reviews (2019)
A systematic review identifies and synthesizes all relevant studies that fit prespecified criteria to answer a research question. Systematic review methods can be used to answer many types of research questions. The type of question most relevant to trialists is the effects of treatments and is thus the focus of this chapter. We discuss the motivation for and importance of performing systematic reviews and their relevance to trialists. We introduce the key steps in completing a systematic review, including framing the question, searching for and selecting studies, collecting data, assessing risk of bias in included studies, conducting a qualitative synthesis and a quantitative synthesis (i.e., meta-analysis), grading the certainty of evidence, and writing the systematic review report. We also describe how to identify systematic reviews and how to assess their methodological rigor. We discuss the challenges and criticisms of systematic reviews, and how technology and innovations, combined with a closer partnership between trialists and systematic reviewers, can help identify effective and safe evidence-based practices more quickly.
What are systematic reviews? via Cochrane
Features and benefits of a systematic review - Tutorial
Part 1: Reasons for a systematic review protocol - Tutorial
Part 2: Reasons for a systematic review protocol - Tutorial