A systematic review helps to answer a specific research question by identifying, evaluating, and summarizing findings from related studies using explicit, planned scientific methods. Biases and errors can be minimized during the results synthetization process.
It is used mainly to:
It is used mainly to:
- Validate existing practices, address discrepancies, and discover new practices
- Inform decisions based on evidence
- Identify and explore conflicting findings
- Highlight potential areas for future research
- Develop a clear and precisely defined research question within a suitable scope
- PICO is a commonly used framework to structure your research question.
Clearly outline the criteria you will use to decide whether a study should be included in your search. Such criteria may be:
- Study targets (e.g. age group, gender)
- Settings (e.g. hospitals, clinics, nursing homes)
- Geographical locations (e.g. countries, regions, cities)
- Publication types (e.g. journals, reports, conference papers)
- Publication dates
- Languages
Conduct your searches in databases which are relevant to your topic. More than one database should be used to limit the biases. To browse the databases in different subjects, please go to A-Z List e-Databases.
- To maximize the number of relevant results, it is essential to conduct a broad and sensitive search rather than a narrow and specific one. Identify all terms and synonyms that are relevant to the topic.
- PICO framework can be used to organise the key terms for searching in a more effective manner.
- Apply search techniques such as Boolean Operators, phrase searching and truncation to yield more accurate results
- Gather all retrieved records from each search into a reference manager, such as EndNote, and remove the duplicates before screening. (Refer to How to Find Duplicated Entries? in EndNote for instructions)
- Finally, document your search process using PRISMA Flow Diagram
- To save time and effort, eliminate studies which are obviously unrelated to your topic by screening the titles and abstracts at the first attempt. Then apply your inclusion and exclusion criteria to assess the full text of the remaining studies.
- Record the reasons for excluding certain studies
Conduct critical appraisals of the selected studies as their varying quality may affect the outcomes of your review. Evaluate the risk of bias in each selected study. You may browse some supplementary materials about critical appraisals below:
- Critical Appraisal Tools provided by the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine of the University of Oxford
- Systematic Review Checklist offered by Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP)
- robvis, a free tool for visualizing risk-of-bias assessments performed as part of a systematic review
Step 1: Formulate your Research Question
Step 2: Formulate Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Step 3: Select Relevant Sources
Step 4: Develop a Search Strategy
Step 5: Screen and Select Studies Based on Your Criteria
Step 6: Carry out Quality Assessment of Selected Studies
Step 7: Extract Data from Selected Studies
Step 8: Publish your Report
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Call no.: R853.S94 D65 2024 |
| ISBN: 9781529740974 Publication Year: 2024 Book |
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Cherry, M. G., Boland, A., & Dickson, R. (2024). Doing a systematic review: A student’s guide (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
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Call no.: RT82.8 .C665 2022 |
| ISBN: 9780826152251 Publication Year: 2022 Book |
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Holly, C., Salmond, S. W., & Saimbert, M. (2022). Comprehensive systematic review for advanced nursing (3rd ed.). Springer
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ISBN: 9781003156017 Publication Year: 2023 eBook |
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Evans, D. (2023). Making sense of evidence-based practice for nursing: An introduction to quantitative and qualitative research and systematic reviews. Routledge.
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ISBN: 9781119536604 Publication Year: 2019 eBook |
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Higgins, J. P. T., & Thomas, J. (Eds.). (2019). Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions (2nd ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
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ISBN: 9780199918201 Publication Year: 2012 eBook |
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Bronson, D. E., & Davis, T. S. (2012). Finding and evaluating evidence: Systematic reviews and evidence-based practice. Oxford University Press.
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ISBN: 9781118463123 Publication Year: 2014 eBook |
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De Brun, C., & Pearce-Smith, N. (2014). Searching skills toolkit: Finding the evidence (2nd ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
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