The PRISMA statement defines a systematic review as "a review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyze and summarize the results of the included studies. Meta-analysis refers to the use of statistical techniques in a systematic review to integrate the results of included studies." 1
In the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, the key characteristics of a systematic review are listed as:
Systematic Reviews to Support Evidence-Based Medicine, 2nd Edition by
Authoritative, clear, concise, and practical, this highly acclaimed book continues to be an essential text for all medical, surgical and health professionals who want to have an easily accessible, quick reference to systematically reviewing the literature. Learn about the key steps to reviewing the literatureCarry out your own reviews with expert g
Register your protocol. Several options include:
An additional step to confirm the robustness of your search strategy is to have another set of eyes review it.
McGowan J, Sampson M, Salzwedel DM, Cogo E, Foerster V, Lefebvre C. PRESS Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Statement. J Clin Epidemiol. 2016 Jul;75:40-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2016.01.021
Data extraction is the process by which one extracts and records study characteristics and findings from each study included in the systematic review. This information can be recorded in a spreadsheet or word processor. Or, use a software program such as Covidence, RevMan, or DistillerSR, or survey program such as Qualtrics or Google Forms.
What data, study characteristics, and information to extract from each study is unique to each review, but extracted data may include:
A requirement of every systematic review is to appraise the quality of each included study. The tool used will depend on the study methodology used. You will see the following phrases used for this phase of the systematic review: critical appraisal, quality assessment, assessment of risk of bias.
Assembling the Pieces of a Systematic Review: Guide for Librarians by 
Basic Methods Handbook for Clinical Orthopaedic Research: A Practical Guide and Case Based Research Approach by 
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions by
The revised edition of the Handbook offers the only guide on how to conduct, report and maintain a Cochrane Review 
 The second edition of The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains essential guidance for preparing and maintaining Cochrane Reviews of the effects of health interventions. Designed to be an accessible resource, the Handbook will also be of interest to anyone undertaking systematic reviews of interventions outside Cochrane, and many of the principles and methods presented are appropriate for systematic reviews addressing research questions other than effects of interventions. This fully updated edition contains extensive new material on systematic review methods addressing a wide-range of topics including network meta-analysis, equity, complex interventions, narrative synthesis, and automation. Also new to this edition, integrated throughout the Handbook, is the set of standards Cochrane expects its reviews to meet. Written for review authors, editors, trainers and others with an interest in Cochrane Reviews, the second edition of The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions continues to offer an invaluable resource for understanding the role of systematic reviews, critically appraising health research studies and conducting reviews.
Finding What Works in Health Care by
Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.
A Guide to Qualitative Meta-Synthesis by
A Guide to Qualitative Meta-synthesis provides accessible guidelines for conducting all phases of theory-generating meta-synthesis research, including data collection, analysis, and theory generation. It is a research methodology that is designed to generate evidence-based theory by extracting, analyzing, and synthesizing qualitative findings from across published investigations. These theories provide scaffolding that can be used by health-care providers and other professionals to make context-based decisions and implement situation-specific actions. Theory-generating meta-synthesis methods stem from the qualitative research paradigm, especially grounded theory. Systematic and rigorous methods are used to identify topically related research reports that provide qualitative findings for analysis. The subsequent analysis of the data goes beyond merely reorganizing and recategorizing research findings. Newly synthesized concepts are developed, and the dynamic relationships among them are fully articulated. The validity of the resultant theory is ensured based on theoretical, methodological, and researcher triangulation; unbiased data collection and sampling strategies; inductive-deductive data analysis and synthesis strategies; and continuous reflexivity. Meta-synthesis-generated theories are highly important in environments where the use of normalized algorithms, guidelines, and protocols are on the rise. The types of theories discussed in this book will help service providers customize standardized tools so that the most effective evidence-based, yet individualized, interventions can be implemented.
A Guide to the Scientific Career by 
How to Perform a Systematic Literature Review A Guide for Healthcare Researchers, Practitioners and Students by
The systematic review is a rigorous method of collating and synthesizing evidence from multiple studies, producing a whole greater than the sum of parts. This textbook is an authoritative and accessible guide to an activity that is often found overwhelming. The authors steer readers on a logical, sequential path through the process, taking account of the different needs of researchers, students and practitioners. Practical guidance is provided on the fundamentals of systematic reviewing and also on advanced techniques such as meta-analysis. Examples are given in each chapter, with a succinct glossary to support the text. This up-to-date, accessible textbook will satisfy the needs of students, practitioners and educators in the sphere of healthcare, and contribute to improving the quality of evidence-based practice. The authors will advise some freely available or inexpensive open source/access resources (such as PubMed, R and Zotero) to help students how to perform a systemic review, in particular those with limited resources.
Introduction to Research and Medical Literature for Health Professionals, 5th ed. by 
Literature Reviews by
This book begins by introducing the topic of knowledge in literature, including its scientific foundations. Due to the ever-increasing number of scientific publications, literature reviews are becoming more and more essential to stay updated. Literature Reviews describes an innovative system for creating systematic literature reviews, through reviewing, analyzing, and synthesizing scientific and technological literature. It then discusses systematic literature reviews, content analysis, and literature synthesis separately, before presenting the methodology to combine them in one process. It showcases computational tools to aid in this technique and offers examples of the method in action. Finally, the book takes a new of future developments in the subject. This book is of interest to graduate students, as well as researchers and academics, helping them to deepen insights and improve skills needed to conduct thorough literature reviews.
Medical Epidemiology: Population Health and Effective Health Care, Fifth Edition by 
Quantitative Methods for Health Research by Systematic Reviews to Support Evidence-Based Medicine, 2nd Edition by
Authoritative, clear, concise, and practical, this highly acclaimed book continues to be an essential text for all medical, surgical and health professionals who want to have an easily accessible, quick reference to systematically reviewing the literature. Learn about the key steps to reviewing the literatureCarry out your own reviews with expert g
The Brown University School of Public Health Evidence Synthesis Academy has developed a series of tutorials and videos about conducting systematic reviews. Here is the introductory video:
According to the Cochrane website, "Our volunteers and contributors are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, and people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere. Our global independent network gathers and summarizes the best evidence from research to help you make informed choices about treatment and we have been doing this for 25 years." This video defines a systematic review:
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