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Systematic Reviews: Best Practices and Standards

Provides an overview of the Systematic Review process and offers information on standards and best practices.

PRISMA for Systematic Reviews

PRISMA is an acronym for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.  It is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in published reviews.

The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews:

http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/PRISMAStatement

PRISMA Flow Diagram: 

http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/FlowDiagram

PRISMA 2020 CHECKLIST

The PRISMA Checklist guides authors PRISMA through the development, reporting and publishing of review articles. The checklist states what elements to include in the title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and funding sections of a review article. If authors follow the PRISMA checklist, then in their manuscript they can indicate that the review was “conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Statement.”

IOM and Cochrane Standards

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine - Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews

Standards for the entire systematic review process, from locating, screening, and selecting studies for the review, to synthesizing the findings (including meta-analysis) and assessing the overall quality of the body of evidence, to producing the final review report.

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

Key Points:

  • Systematic reviews seek to collate evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. They aim to minimize bias by using explicit, systematic methods documented in advance with a protocol.
  • Cochrane prepares, maintains and promotes systematic reviews (Cochrane Reviews) to inform decisions about health and social care.
  • Cochrane Reviews are published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in the Cochrane Library.
  • The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains methodological guidance for the preparation and maintenance of Cochrane Reviews on the effects of interventions.

Campbell Collaboration
The Campbell Collaboration is an international network publishing high quality, transparent and policy-relevant evidence syntheses and maps in the social sectors. These are published in Campbell Systematic Reviews, an open-access journal, which is a member of the Centre for Open Science Registered Reports, thus adheres to peer review and publication of the planned methods as a protocol to minimize bias.  

Campbell is also a leading actor in evidence synthesis methods, producing guides and discussion papers for researchers interested in the field of methodology and evidence synthesis generally.

Campbell promotes positive social and economic change by enabling evidence-based policy and practice. Our vision is “Better evidence for a better world”.