Guidelines & Resources
These organizations provide rich resources and training for researchers interested in conducting a systematic review.
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new windowThe Cochrane Library is a collection of databases including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.
- Campbell CollaborationWith a mission to "promote positive social and economic change through the production and use of systematic reviews and other evidence synthesis for evidence-based policy and practice," Campbell Collaboration facilitates, promotes, trains, produces and distributes evidenced-based research with a focus on the disciplines in the social sciences.
- EPPI-Centre (Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre)Based in the UK, the Center develops methods and offers guidance and training for systematic reviews and research syntheses. The site provides great support for subject areas such as education, social policy, criminal justice, health policies, and social sciences.
- Joanna Briggs InstituteAn international entity based at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. JBI develops and delivers evidence-based information on health care and health outcomes. It also provides software, and education and training programs for systematic reviews in the fields of nursing and health research.
- PRISMA: the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-AnalysesProviding a guideline or basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions type of studies.
There are a series of iterative steps involved in a systematic review. The process includes project planning, identifying & evaluating (search evidence), collecting, appraising, combining (data or findings), and synthesizing and explaining (results). This process could also be divided into small steps as listed below. The process needs to clearly documented and reported in the final research report to ensure transparency.
- Define the research question
- Develop a search protocol
- Run searches
- Retrieve and de-duplicate references
- Screen studies against inclusion/exclusion criteria
- Extract data and assess studies for risk of bias
- Clean and manage data
- Conduct qualitative synthesis
- Conduct meta-analysis if appropriate
- Write a report
- (Update systematic review)
Researchers in different disciplines have developed frameworks to help to break a review question down into sub-questions. These frameworks are helpful in terms of guiding you to clearly and specifically state the question. Among existing frameworks, PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome) is most commonly known, but there are others you could consider according to your study's purpose and topic. The information provided in this table is from the second chapter of Assembling the Pieces of Systematic Review: A Guide for Librarians, edited by Margaret J. Foster, and Sarah T. Jewell.
| Framework | Stands for | Subject/Disciplines |
| PICO | Patient, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome | Clinical Medicine |
| CHIP | Context, How, Issues, Population | Psychology, Qualitative Studies |
| PICOT | Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, Time frame | Health Sciences, Social Sciences |
| SPIDER | Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research Type | Social Sciences, Education, Qualitative Studies |
| PICOC | Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Context | Social Sciences |
- PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)PRISMA offers tools, such as checklists, flow diagrams, and other resources to improve the reporting quality of a systematic review and to ensure substantial transparency in the selection process of papers in a systematic review. The
- Best Evidence Medical Education (BBEME Collaboration Review Protocol)Provide a guide on how to write a protocol.
- EQUATER (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research)The site hosts near 400, searchable reporting guidelines. One could discover the most appropriate reporting guidelines by selecting study type, discipline, or keywords.
Registering protocols helps to ensure a level of transparency and accountability for research, and avoid repetition among studies. You could go to these sites to register your own study protocols and run searches if there are similar studies are being conducted.
- PROSPERO: International Prospective Register of Systematic ReviewsConsidered as the primary database for registering systematic review protocols and searching for published ones. The databases covers systematic review protocols from all disciplines (e.g., health and public health, social care and welfare; education, psychology, crime and social justice, international development etc.)
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new windowThe Cochrane Library is a collection of databases including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. You can find completed and also protocols of studies.
- JBI Systematic Review RegisterCollecting reviews and protocols to reduce duplicated effort.
- Open Science Framework (OSF) RegistriesOSF offers a variety of services to the science community, including an option to register a project, including systematic review protocols.
- Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)The primary focus of the database is on systematic reviews that evaluate the effects of health care interventions, organization and delivery, but it also covers reviews of other factors that could potentially have an impact on health, such as housing, transportation, social care, and so forth. But please note that this database has stopped updating since 2015.