A systematic review aims to provide an unbiased answer to a research question with -
• Clear objectives – and defined criteria for studies to be included.
• A systematic search that attempts to identify all the relevant studies (both published & unpublished)
• A synthesis of the findings of the included studies
And it must also include a full methodology allowing for the searches and synthesis to be replicated.
There are numerous frameworks and guidlines for conducting sytematic reviews and it is likely that your supervisor will recommend one to you to be used as a roadmap for the project.
You can find links to the most commonly recommend frameworks on the right of this page
You should begin with some simple scoping searches.on the topic that you are looking at. These will help identify how much research has already been done - and if there is enough evidence available for a systematic review to be possible.
The scoping search will also help you think about your research question and identify appropraite search terms. You can do your scoping search in PubMed - or in one of our larger databases such as Scopus or Web of Science. Google Scholar can also be useful here as it offers fulltext searching over a huge range of scholarly content.
It is also worth checking to see if a review has already been done. The list below gives several palces that you can try in order to see if someone has already done a review in the area you are looking at -
You will need to search a range of sources for your review. This is because you need to show that you have found all the research relevant to your topic.
A good starting point for which databases to use is your subject guide - this will have the best databases for your subject area on the homepage. While there is overlap in terms of what different databases contain they also all have unique content that you may miss if you don't search them. It's also worth thinking about searching general databases that might have literature adjacent to your topic that could be useful.
You should also consider searching for Grey Literature. There is help on how to do this on our Key Web Resources page.
Our pages on how to do a literature search are a good starting point.
We have pages on Search Skills and on PICO Searching which will help you form your research question.
You will need to do some initial broad searches to make sure that there is enough literature in the area you are looking at for a systematic review to be doable.
Remember - You can ask in the library for help with all of this.
You can book a 121 with a subject specialist by emailing AldrichSAS@brighton.ac.uk
You will need to record your searches as part of the review.
It's a good idea to have a look at an existing systematic review to see how this is done - Cochrane reviews all have the search strategy recorded as an appendix at the end of the review.
If you have logins for the databases you are using (most of the resources we subscribe to will let you create these) then you can choose to save your searches this way. Make sure you keep a record of which databases you used and when so you can easily find all the search data you'll need.
Another method is to record each search as you go along in a seperate document. We recommend this as it also let's you see at a glance how many results each search got and track the differences in search results across resources. This can help you pick which resources to focus on when doing your research.
You'll need to not only keep track of how you do your searching - but also the results you get.
You'll need to be able to remove duplicate results and to sort and evaluate your results so you can select the research that will form the basis of your review.
Bibliographic software allows you to manage all the references you need for your papers, report or thesis by enabling you to keep them in your own personal database or library. It allows you to:
We recommend using Endnote as this is the bibliographic software that the library supports
You can get help with using Endote on our webpages - or by emailing aldrichsubjectteam@brighton.ac.uk to ask for a session with a subject specialist
Adapted from SMILE by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.