What Is a Systematic Review?
From the
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic
Reviews of Interventions:
"A systematic review attempts to collate all
empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to
answer a specific research question. It uses explicit, systematic methods that
are selected with a view to minimizing bias, thus providing more reliable
findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made (Antman 1992,
Oxman 1993). The key characteristics of a systematic review are:
-
a clearly stated set of objectives with
pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies;
-
an explicit, reproducible methodology;
-
a systematic search that attempts to
identify all studies that would meet the eligibility criteria;
-
an assessment of the validity of the
findings of the included studies, for example through the assessment of risk of
bias; and
-
a systematic presentation, and synthesis,
of the characteristics and findings of the included studies"
Higgins JPT, Green S (editors). Cochrane
Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 5.1.0 [updated March
2011]. The Cochrane Collaboration, 2011. Available from
www.handbook.cochrane.org. |
IOM
Standards for Systematic Reviews
The Institutes of Medicine was renamed in 2016
to the The Health and Medicine Division (HMD) of the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Their guidelines are one of the gold
standards for SR's and explicitly discuss team building, creation, and
reporting standards for your SR. |