{"id":666,"date":"2024-03-20T10:42:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T10:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/?p=666"},"modified":"2024-03-20T10:44:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T10:44:14","slug":"systematic-reviews-five-frequently-asked-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2024\/03\/20\/systematic-reviews-five-frequently-asked-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Systematic Reviews: five frequently asked questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Academic Support Librarians<\/a> provide help for students and researchers who are conducting large-scale reviews, such as systematic and scoping reviews, we find that often the same questions will come up. This blog post aims to answer five of your frequently asked questions about systematic reviews and provide some useful resources for you to explore further.<\/p>\n

For even more advice about systematic review guidance, see the library\u2019s subject guide on systematic reviews<\/a> and LibSmart II: Literature Searching for Systematic Reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now let’s dive in to five Frequently Asked Questions\u2026<\/p>\n

1. What is a systematic review, and how does it differ from other types of literature review?<\/h1>\n
\"A

Image by Mug\u00e9<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

According to the Cochrane Collaboration<\/a>, a leading group in the production of evidence synthesis and systematic reviews;<\/p>\n

systematic reviews are large syntheses of evidence, which use rigorous and reproducible methods, with a view to minimise bias, to identify all known data on a specific research question.1<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is done by a large, complex literature search in databases and other sources, using multiple search terms and search techniques.<\/p>\n

Traditional literature reviews, such as the literature review chapter in a dissertation, don\u2019t usually apply the same rigour in their methods because, unlike systematic reviews, synthesise all known data on a topic. Literature reviews can provide context or background information for a new piece of research, or can stand alone as a general guide to what is already known about a particular topic2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

What about scoping reviews?<\/em><\/p>\n

There are other review types in the systematic review \u201cfamily\u201d3<\/sup>. You may have also heard of scoping reviews. These are similar to systematic reviews, in that they employ transparent reporting of reproducible methods and synthesise evidence, but they do so in order to identify knowledge gaps, scope a body of literature, clarify concepts or to investigate research conduct4<\/sup>.\u00a0Literature searching for scoping reviews will be similarly comprehensive, but may be more iterative than in systematic reviews.<\/p>\n

Useful resources:<\/em><\/p>\n