Systematic review guide

A concerningly large number of systematic reviews are published when they are not relevant, done incorrectly or both. This 2016 article by Ioannidis entitled the mass production of redundant, misleading and conflicted systematic reviews and meta-analyses suggests only 3% of published reviews are properly conducted and clinically useful. Unfortunately, more recent research has continued to find huge errors. This living systematic reviewlution brings together evidence of problems with published reviews.

While Systematic Reviews with Meta Analysis are commonly described as the "Gold Standard" of evidence they are not necessarily the best methodological fit for every research question and other types of review remain valid. See Other types of review section next for more details about the different review types.
You may also need to consider the resourcing of your project when settling on a research question. The wider the scope of the question the longer it is likely to take to find and review all relevant evidence. 
 

Methods and tools to help guide your decision

• Have you checked if someone else has already written a review on your topic? One in three reviews were found to be redundant. Nearly 80 systematic reviews were published every day between 2000-2019 and that number has increased since then. Check with Prospero and Epistimonikos to ensure that you are not needlessly copying work that has already been done.
   
• Do you fully understand what a sytematic review entails? Reading this guide and looking at similar reviews will help.
   
• Do you have enough time and resourcing to do a systematic review? Do you have people who can work on the review with you? Reviews should be undertaken by more than one person. Remember other review types are available, such as rapid reviews and that the traditional narrative literature review still has it's place in contributing to the evidence base.
   
• Have you joined our Microsoft Teams Community of Practice for people doing reviews? Its aim is to provide an online community space for researchers to advise and support each other. Ask questions about your review, comment on the articles and resources we suggest and help answer the questions of others.
   
• This decision tree can help you decide. There is also this 'choosing the best type of review for your question' guide