A systematic review attempts to gather all the empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. It uses explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view to minimizing bias, thus providing more reliable findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made.
How to read a paper: Paper that summarise other papers (systematic reviews & meta-analysis)
The key characteristics of a systematic review are:
On average, systematic reviews require 12-18 months of preparation. You will need to work with subject experts to clarify issues related to the topic; subject librarians to help develop comprehensive search strategies and identify appropriate databases; reviewers to screen abstracts and read the full text; a statistician who can assist with data analysis (if you are conducting a meta-analysis); and a project leader to coordinate and write the final report.
It will be essential to have a clearly defined question. Clarify the key question(s) of you systematic review and the rationale for each question. Use the PICO framework to identify key concepts of the question. PICO is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements required to form a good clinical question:
P = Population/Patient/Problem - How would I describe the problem or a group of patients similar to mine?
I = Intervention - What main intervention, prognostic factor or exposure am I considering?
C = Comparison - Is there an alternative to compare with the intervention?
O = Outcome - What do I hope to accomplish, measure, improve or affect?
You will have to determine, in consultation with your colleagues, the inclusion/exclusion criteria.
You will need to write a protocol outlining the study methodology. The protocol should include the rationale for the systematic review, key questions broken into PICO components, inclusion/exclusion criteria, literature searches for published/unpublished literature, data abstraction/data management, assessment of methodological quality of individual studies, data synthesis, and grading the evidence for each key question.
After you write the protocol, you should register it with a review registry. Some review registries available include, PROSPERO or OSF.
Some helpful videos on Systematic Searches from Yale University
Literature searches using YUL databases: As a first step, identify systematic reviews that may address your key questions. The next step would be to identify appropriate databases and conduct comprehensive and detailed literature searches. You can use citation management programs like Mendeley or Zotero to help manage citations and documents retrieved from literature searches.