A systematic review is a review that gathers together all empirical research based on a pre-defined set of search parameters to answer a specific research question.
Systematic reviews include:
Clarify the key question(s) of you systematic review and the rationale for each question. Use the PICO framework to identify key concepts of the question. Determine inclusion/exclusion criteria.
Writing out a protocol outlining the study methodology is key element to a systematic review. The protocol should include the rationale for the systematic review, key questions broken into PICO components, inclusion/exclusion criteria, literature searches for published/unpublished literature, data abstraction/data management, assessment of methodological quality of individual studies, data synthesis, and grading the evidence for each key question.
Need help writing a protocol? See the University of Warwick's protocol template in the link below.
It can be helpful to start by identifying any systematic reviews that may already address your key questions. Then, identify appropriate databases and conduct comprehensive and detailed literature searches that can be documented and duplicated.
Use Mendeley to keep track of and organize your citations and studies. Haven't used a citation management tool before? Check out our Mendeley guide.