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Systematic Reviews

A guide for researchers undertaking a systematic review

Is a systematic review right for you?

There are some things to consider before deciding to undertake a systematic review.

You may want to consider other types of reviews that may be more relevant to your topic or approach of interest.

Other types of reviews

Scoping reviews are exploratory in nature and are used to systematically search the literature and map the key concepts underpinning a research area as well as to clarify working definitions, and/or the conceptual boundaries of a topic. Scoping reviews do not contain critical appraisals of evidence. They describe rather than synthesise the information they find. Scoping reviews may be undertaken prior to a systematic review, or as a stand alone review.

Scoping reviews may:

  • Explain the range of literature, and identify any gaps in the research area.
  • Provide direction for the ensuing systematic review or reviews or to help reviewers identify and define more precise questions and suitable inclusion criteria.
  • Assist to examine emerging evidence when it is still unclear what other, more specific questions can be posed and valuably addressed.
  • Examine broad areas to identify gaps in the evidence, clarify key concepts, and report on the types of evidence that address and inform practice in a topic area.
  • Be used to map evidence in relation to time, location, source and/or origin.

Example of a published scoping review:

Larsen, C. M., Terkelsen, A. S., Carlsen, A. F., & Kristensen, H, K. (2019). Methods for teaching evidence-based practice: a scoping review. BMC medical education, 19(1), 259. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1681-0

Example scoping review questions:

  • What is known about the patient demographics Drug Y is usually prescribed to and the effectiveness of Y for different demographics? (Age, nationality, gender, disability, pregnancy, fitness level...etc)
  • What has the existing research found about prevalence of and all impacts of Z symptom for people diagnosed with W disease?
  • What methods have been used to assess the effectiveness of X intervention?

Further reading and guidance:

Peters MDJ, Godfrey C, McInerney P, Munn Z, Tricco AC, Khalil, H. Chapter 11: Scoping Reviews (2020 version). In: Aromataris E, Munn Z (Editors). JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis, JBI, 2020. Available from https://synthesismanual.jbi.global.

Peters MDJ, Marnie C, Tricco AC, Pollock D, Munn Z, Alexander L, McInerney P, Godfrey CM, Khalil H. Updated methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews. JBI Evidence Synthesis. 2020;18(10):2119-2126. doi:10.11124/jbies-20-0016

Munn Z, Peters MDJ, Stern C, Tufanaru C, McArthur A, Aromataris E. Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2018;18:143.

A literature review, or narrative review, is an attempt to obtain and synthesise the results and conclusions of key publications on a given topic. Literature reviews often do not answer one specific question like a systematic review does, and they usually bring together a summary of the literature in a qualitative manner. They may be a first step in determining the current state of the literature on a topic.

A literature review may be undertaken in a systematic way in order to be comprehensive, without being a systematic review. It is important to recognise the differences between the two and determine which type of review is best suited to your needs - or whether one of the other reviews detailed here is more applicable.

Literature reviews:

  • provide a (generally qualitative) summary of the relevant literature, as determined by the author.
  • do not necessarily provide an analysis of the literature or its quality.
  • usually do not include a description of the methodology of the search process.
  • refer to key journal literature without going into the grey literature.
  • don't always answer a specific research question.
  • are not protocol driven.

Further reading and guidance:
Talbot, L.. & Verrinder. W., (2008). Turn a stack of papers into a literature review: useful tools for beginners. Focus on Health Professional Education, 10(1), 51–58.
Frederiksen L & Phelps S.(2020)  Literature Review for education and nursing graduate students
 

Rapid reviews are a form of accelerated systematic review. They are usually undertaken when decision makers have urgent and emerging needs which require evidence produced on a short time frame. Typically, to compensate for the short time frame of a rapid review, methodological rigour may be sacrificed. Cochrane defines rapid reviews as "a form of knowledge synthesis that accelerates the process of conducting a traditional systematic review through streamlining or omitting specific methods to produce evidence for stakeholders in a resource-efficient manner.”

Further reading and guidance: 

Klerings, I., Robalino, S., Booth, A., Escobar-Liquitay, C. M., Sommer, I., Gartlehner, G., Devane, D., & Waffenschmidt, S. (2023) Rapid Review methods series: Guidane on literature search. BJM Evidence-Based Medicine, 28(6), 412-417

Hamel C, Michaud A, Thuku M, Skidmore B, Stevens A, et al. Defining rapid reviews: a systematic scoping review and thematic analysis of definitions and defining characteristics of rapid reviews. J Clin Epi. 2021;129:74-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.09.041 

 

Umbrella reviews are sometimes referred to as a "review of reviews". They are an attempt to identify and appraise, extract and summarise all the evidence from research syntheses related to a topic or question. 

Umbrella reviews may:

  • Include analyses of different interventions for the same problem or condition.
  • Analyse the same intervention and condition, but different outcomes.
  • Analyse the same intervention but different conditions, problems or populations.

Umbrella reviews offer the possibility to address a broad scope of issues related to the topic of interest.

Adapted from: Aromataris E, Fernandez R, Godfrey C, Holly C, Khalil H, Tungpunkom P. Chapter 10: Umbrella Reviews. In: Aromataris E, Munn Z (Editors). JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. JBI, 2020. Available from https://synthesismanual.jbi.global.  https://doi.org/10.46658/JBIMES-20-11 

Which review should I do?

The following resources can assist you in deciding what review to do:

Articles:

 

Online tools:

 

Videos:

  • Narrative vs Systematic vs Scoping Review: What's the difference?

 

  • Should I Do a Scoping or Systematic Review?

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