Systematic reviews

Overview of systematic review steps and resources to assist researchers conducting reviews.

Conducting a systematic review

Below are the steps used when conducting a systematic review:

You can see more detail about each of these steps in the pages within this section.

Also see below for some discipline-specific resources freely available online or via Library Search to help you get started.

Watch the short video below for an overview of the steps of a systematic review (3m 25s):

Systematic Reviews Step by Step
This series on the systematic review from the Joanna Briggs Institute, an international collaborative supporting evidence-based practice in nursing, medicine, and allied health fields, shows nurses how to conduct a systematic review—one step at a time.
Twelve tips for medical students to conduct a systematic review
Outlines twelve tips on conducting a systematic review for medical students with limited research experience.
Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews
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.

Characteristics of systematic reviews in the social sciences
Discusses methodology and characteristics of systematic reviews undertaken in social science disciplines
Systematic style literature reviews for education and social sciences
From Griffith University; how to undertake a systematic-style literature review in social science disciplines

Methodology for systematic literature review applied to engineering and education
Breaks down the systematic review process with applicability to engineering discipline into three stages: planning, conducting and reporting