Systematic Reviews & Evidence Synthesis Methods

Formulating a strong research question for a systematic review can be a lengthy process. While you may have an idea about the topic you want to explore, your specific research question is what will drive your review and requires some consideration. 

You will want to conduct preliminary or exploratory searches of the literature as you refine your question. In these searches you will want to:

• Determine if a systematic review has already been conducted on your topic and if so, how yours might be different, or how you might shift or narrow your anticipated focus.
• Scope the literature to determine if there is enough literature on your topic to conduct a systematic review.
• Identify key concepts and terminology.
• Identify seminal or landmark studies.
• Identify key studies that you can test your search strategy against (more on that later).
• Begin to identify databases that might be useful to your search question.

A narrow and specific research question is required in order to conduct a systematic review. The goal of a systematic review is to provide an evidence synthesis of ALL research performed on one particular topic. Your research question should be clearly answerable from the studies included in your review. 

Another consideration is whether the question has been answered enough to warrant a systematic review. If there have been very few studies, there won't be enough qualitative and/or quantitative data to synthesize. You then have to adjust your question... widen the population, broaden the topic, reconsider your inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc.

When developing your question, it can be helpful to consider the FINER criteria (Feasible, Interesting, Novel, Ethics, and Relevant). Read more about the FINER criteria on the Elsevier blog.

If you have a broader question or aren't certain that your question has been answered enough in the literature, you may be better served by pursuing a systematic map, also know as a scoping review. Scoping reviews are conducted to give a broad overview of a topic, to review the scope and themes of the prior research, and to identify the gaps and areas for future research.

Start by framing your research question. For example, a commonly used framework in health sciences is PICO: Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome.

You can use:

• this excellent guide from City University of London, on choosing research question frameworks,
• this guide from Cornell University,
• and/or the chart below to choose the framework that best fits your research question.

SOURCE: PIECES; Excel workbook designed to help conduct, document, and manage a systematic review. Created by Margaret J. Foster, MS, MPH, AHIP, Systematic Reviews Coordinator, Associate Professor, Medical Sciences Library, Texas A&M University. CC-BY-3.0 license