A systematic review is reproducible research methodology with a clear process. The steps in any process can of course be broken down in different ways; here are the steps in conducting a systematic review as presented in this guide:
Steps
- Formulate the question. Requires a clear, unambiguous and structured question
- Create a protocol (plan). This should be completed in the early stages of the project
- Conduct a thorough search. The search for studies should be extensive and multiple resources used
- Post search phase. Some steps which happen after the searching is done
- Select studies (screening). Selecting which papers will be included in the review. Reasons for inclusion and exclusion should be recorded before this stage, as part of the protocol
- Appraise the quality of studies. Selected studies should be subjected to a refined quality assessment by use of general critical appraisal guides and design-based quality checklists
- Extract data, synthesise and analyse. Extracting data from the included papers for synthesis and analysis
- Interpret results, and write up the review. Conclusions based upon the results are written up
Based in part on -
Khan KS, Kunz R, Kleijnen J, Antes G. Five steps to conducting a systematic review. J R Soc Med 2003;96(3):118-21.