Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's Manual
The National Academies, Health and Medicine Division - Standards for Systematic Reviews
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) describes the items that should be reported to ensure the quality of the systematic review. It has recently been updated.
Available as checklist and flow diagram.
There is PRISMA guidance on reporting systematic review protocols, systematic reviews and scoping reviews. There are specific extensions for reviews on harms, diagnostic test accuracy, networked meta-analyses and for reporting searches.
The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ.
AMSTAR 2 - checklist for assessing the quality of systematic reviews.
Protocols cab be registered at:
GRADE. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) Working Group is a multi-disciplinary group whose aim is to encourage consistent and transparent evaluation of evidence and formation of recommendations.
GRADE approach to evaluating the quality of evidence: a pathway. Online learning on using GRADE from the Cochrane Library.
Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review. Article.
How to do a systematic review. International Journal of Stroke, 2018.
A 24-step guide on how to design, conduct, and successfully publish a systematic review and meta-analysis in medical research. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2019.
A systematic approach to searching: an efficient and complete method to develop literature searches.Journal of the Medical Library Association. 2018. Article describing steps to create comprehensive search strategy
Putting the ‘systematic’ into searching – tips and resources for search strategies in systematic reviews. Journal of Hand Surgery. 2018.
Searching clinical trials registers: guide for systematic reviewers. BMJ 2022
Systematic Reviews: A Social Work Perspective. Australian Social Work, 2015.
Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2018
The Mass Production of Redundant, Misleading, and Conflicted Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses. Ioannidis J. P. (2016). The Milbank Quarterly, 94(3), 485–514. Article.
The Joanna Briggs Institute has a You Tube channel exploring aspects of systematic reviews and evidence syntheses.
The SR Toolbox - comprehensive list of tools and links to use in all stages of the review process.
SR Accelerator includes an de-duplicating function, word frequency analyzer and conversion of search strategy between databases.
CitationChaser identifies citations of articles and allows bulk download.