Protocol & PROSPERO
Write and register your method before you start — what you’ll do, decided in advance.
How to do a systematic review
A systematic review answers a focused question by finding, appraising, and synthesizing all the relevant evidence using a method so explicit that someone else could reproduce it. That reproducibility is the whole point — it’s what separates a systematic review from an ordinary literature review. This guide walks the process end to end and links to the steps people most often get wrong.
The core steps
Inclusion & exclusion criteria
Turn your question into eligibility rules with PICO — the gate every study must pass.
The PRISMA flow diagram
Account for every record from database hits to included studies — the standard figure.
Free tool: PRISMA Flow Diagram Generator
Risk of bias & appraisal
Judge how much to trust each included study — RoB 2, ROBINS-I, and GRADE.
Meta-analysis
When and how to pool results statistically — forest plots, heterogeneity, and when not to pool.
How it fits together
A systematic review runs in order: a focused question framed with PICO → a registered protocol → a comprehensive, reproducible search across databases → two-reviewer screening against your eligibility criteria → data extraction → risk-of-bias assessment of each included study → synthesis, which is either a meta-analysis or a structured narrative synthesis → reporting, with a PRISMA flow diagram and the PRISMA 2020 checklist. Each step is decided in the protocol before you touch the evidence.
Systematic review vs other review types
A systematic review is one point on a spectrum. A scoping review maps the breadth of a field without appraising quality; a narrative review is expert synthesis without a reproducible method; a meta-analysis is the statistical pooling step some systematic reviews include. If you’re not sure which you need, start with narrative vs systematic vs scoping.
Use the tools as you work
- PRISMA Flow Diagram Generator — build a clean PRISMA 2020 flow diagram from your screening counts.
- Lit-Review Readiness Check — pressure-test whether your review question and scope are ready.
- Citation Formatter — format the included studies for your reference list.
Get the free Systematic Review toolkit
A protocol template, a PICO eligibility worksheet, a search-log template, and a PRISMA checklist from The Dissertation Literature Review Sprint. We’ll email you the download link.
Frequently asked questions
What is a systematic review?
A review that answers a focused question by finding, appraising, and synthesizing all relevant evidence with a pre-specified, reproducible method — registered in a protocol and reported against PRISMA.
How is it different from a literature review?
A literature review summarizes what’s known, often selectively; a systematic review uses an explicit, reproducible method to find and appraise all eligible evidence and minimize bias.
Do I need a meta-analysis?
No. A systematic review may pool results in a meta-analysis when studies are similar enough, or synthesize them narratively when they aren’t. The review is systematic either way.