Systematic review

Systematic review is a type of literature review that uses systematic methods to collect secondary data, critically appraise research studies, and synthesize findings qualitatively or quantitatively. Systematic reviews formulate research questions that are broad or narrow in scope, and identify and synthesize studies that directly relate to the systematic review question. They are designed to provide a complete, exhaustive summary of current literature relevant to a research question.

Overview

Systematic reviews are often applied in the biomedical or healthcare context, but they can be used in other areas where an assessment of a precisely defined subject is needed. They are a key part of evidence-based medicine and are often used to inform guidelines and policy making.

Methodology

The process of systematic review is divided into several stages:

1. Formulation of the research question: The research question needs to be defined in terms of the population, intervention, comparison, and outcome.
2. Identification of relevant studies: Researchers need to search different databases and use different search terms to ensure they have found all relevant studies.
3. Selection of studies: Studies are selected based on predefined criteria.
4. Data extraction: Data are extracted from the selected studies for further analysis.
5. Assessment of the quality of the studies: The quality of the studies is assessed using predefined criteria.
6. Data synthesis: Data are combined either through a narrative summary or a meta-analysis.

Advantages and Limitives

Systematic reviews have several advantages over traditional narrative reviews. They attempt to minimize bias by the comprehensive nature of the search process and the systematic approach to data extraction and management. However, they also have limitations. They are dependent on the quality of the underlying studies and can only answer questions that have been studied adequately in the literature.

See Also

• Meta-analysis
• Evidence-based medicine
• Literature review
• Cochrane