Systematic reviews are one type of evidence synthesis, which is the process of bringing information together from a variety of sources to inform debates and decisions in disciplines and public policy (Evidence Synthesis, the Royal Society). Other types of evidence syntheses are meta-analyses, scoping reviews, and narrative literature reviews. All evidence syntheses are characterized by rigor and transparency, but systematic reviews are the most intensive, involve the most team members, and usually take the most time (12 - 24 months). See Select a Review Type to learn more about the various kinds of evidence synthesis.
Systematic reviews were originally developed to give evidence-based answers about interventions in medicine, e.g., the efficacy of treatments and diagnostic tools. More recently, social sciences have adopted systematic reviews to answer research questions concerning best practices in psychology, education, and other areas of human behavior.
See the University of Toronto Health Science Library's Systematic Review Guide for a comprehensive guide to conducting systematic reviews.
For detailed workflows, see the resources below:
If you would like additional assistance related to systematic reviews, contact your subject librarian. Subject librarians provide professional research consultation to members of the UNT community. A subject librarian can assist with determining the resources to search, recommend the best strategies for identifying scholarship on a topic, and can direct you to additional information about your method of synthesizing evidence.
UNT subject librarians may elect to participate in performing a systematic review or other type of research activity as part the scholarly work expected of faculty librarians. Such collaborations require advance planning so that a librarian may allocate sufficient time to the research project, and the research project should publicly recognize the librarian's scholarly contribution.
The Libraries and the Office for Faculty Success sponsored two programs about systematic reviews in April 2022 to educate the UNT community about this type of evidence synthesis. Zoom recordings of the events are available below:
The UNT Libraries have many examples of systematic reviews available through our electronic resources. Visit the individual articles and journals below to become familiar with the structure of a systematic review.
Need help? Then use the library's Ask Us service. Get help from real people face-to-face, by phone, by email, or by live chat.
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This work is a derivative of "Systematic Reviews", created by and © University of North Texas, used under CC BY-NC 4.0 International.
