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Syracuse University Libraries

Systematic Reviews

General procedures to help guide researchers through the elements of a systematic review

Do you have the resources and time to conduct a systematic review?

Conducting an evidence synthesis review is a commitment. It can take up to 1-2 years to complete the process from formulating your question through journal acceptance. Input from at least 3 team members is needed, in addition to advice or input from a subject librarian or team member who is experienced in searching the literature.

A sample scenario of a systematic review could look like:

One team member handles the processes of the review: creating data abstraction forms, keeping track of inclusion/exclusion decisions, handling team communications, managing databases and forms, etc. Two team members perform inclusion/exclusion decision making and data abstraction. The additional team member acts as a tiebreaker in the case of a disagreement. One to two team members analyze the data and write your publication. Depending on the size of the literature, you may want to add additional team members. A team of up to ten or twelve people is not unusual for a large systematic review. 

Do you have time to go through as many search results as you might find? Since evidence synthesis reviews could take months to years complete,  consider a different type of review if there are time constraints.

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