Systematic reviews
What is a systematic review?
Systematic reviews, systematic searches and literature reviews – they all sound very similar. So, what’s the difference and how do you know which is the right choice for you?
This page defines a systematic review and it’s features, explains how it differs from other types of reviews and searches, and advises how to pick a review appropriate for your purpose.
What is a systematic review?
A systematic review is a type of research that analyses all the studies on a particular topic to find out what the evidence shows overall.
To do this, researchers use explicit, systematic and tightly structured methods to analyse, appraise and synthesise all evidence available on a particular question. This is documented in advance with a protocol to minimise bias and arrive at a considered judgement or set of balanced conclusions.
A systematic review can take several months to a couple of years to complete and often requires collaboration between a group of people.
Originally developed for medical-related fields to support evidence-based practice, systematic reviews are increasingly being undertaken in other fields such as environmental science, business and social science.
Watch this video to understand more about systematic reviews:
Systematic reviews and literature reviews
Systematic reviews are often confused with literature reviews. They follow similar processes, but they are quite different. Systematic reviews take many months to complete, keep to strict protocol and need a thorough knowledge of the topic. Literature reviews are informal and non-specific, take less time and require a general overview of a subject.
This table compares systematic reviews and literature reviews across several areas of the review process:
| Systematic review | Literature review | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition |
High-level overview of primary research on a focused question that identifies, selects and synthsises and appraises all high quality research evidence relevant to that question |
Qualitatively summarises evidence on a topic using informal or subjective methods to collect and interpret studies |
|
Goals |
Answer a focused clinical question |
Provide summary or overview of a topic |
|
Question |
Clearly defined and answerable clinical question |
Can be a general topic or a specific question |
|
Components |
Pre-specified eligibility criteria |
Introduction |
|
Number of authors |
Three or more |
One or more |
|
Timeline |
Months to years |
Weeks to months |
|
Requirements |
Thorough knowledge of topic |
Understanding of topic |
|
Value |
Connects practicing clinicians to high quality evidence |
Provides summary of literature on a topic |
Credit: ‘What’s in a name? The difference between a systematic review and literature review and why it matters?’ by Lynn Kysh
Systematic reviews and systematic searches
For many assignments, dissertations or theses, you will be required to provide an overview of the literature on a research topic. While this requires a comprehensive and structured search of the literature, you will not be required to adhere to the strict methodology of a systematic review.
Watch this video to learn more about systematic searching:
What type of review is appropriate for your purposes?
When planning your review, it is important to choose a methodology that matches the purpose of the review.
Read more about choosing the right type of review:
- This analysis provides an extensive investigation of the strengths and weaknesses of different review types.
- This academic article outlines approaches to structuring a systematic review based on the nature of the research question.
The ‘Right Review’ tool can assist you in identifying which type of evidence synthesis would be appropriate for your research question.
Recommended additional reading
Further your understanding of systematic reviews:
- an introduction to systematic reviews
- systematic approaches to a successful literature search
- systematic searching
- how to document your search for your systematic review.