VU Systematic Review guide
Step 1: Define a clear and focused question
Step 2: Develop a protocol
This is the plan for your review. Consider:
Then, per your protocol:
Step 3: Conduct systematic searches
Step 4: Screen for studies that meet your eligibility criteria
Step 5: Critically appraise the quality of the included studies and assess risk of bias
Step 6: Extract relevant data from the included studies
Step 7: Synthesise the data you have extracted
Guidelines can help you resolve questions that arise as you do your review.
Two of the most authoritative guides are by the Cochrane Library and the Joanna Briggs Insitute (JBI).
PRISMA 2020 (Preferred Reporting Instrument for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) is the most current and widely used reporting standard. Following PRISMA will ensure you do not miss any steps which may affect publication.
Some journals require PRISMA compliance before considering publication.
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“The process of preparing and publishing a Cochrane Review is different from that for other journals. Reviews are typically registered at conception and there is a closer working relationship between Cochrane and the review authors. In addition, Cochrane Reviews follow a highly structured format so that they can be published within the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and their preparation follows a structured process.”
-Cochrane Handbook, Part 1, Chapter 2.1.
Thanks to UniSA for creating a guide on Systematic Reviews and sharing its contents as a basis for this guide. The UniSA guide was developed with the assistance and expertise of Dr Anna Phillips, Prof Saravana Kumar, and Assoc Prof Shylie Mackintosh.
This content is licensed to Victoria University under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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