About Step 1: Complete Pre-Review Tasks
Step 1: Pre-Review Tasks
Average time (in hours) to complete
In the Pre-Review step, you will prepare to conduct your SR by completing the following steps:
- Develop your research question
- Perform a literature search to see if a SR is needed on your topic
- Build your project team
- Specify eligibility criteria
- Choose review tools: citation manager and SR software
How a librarian can help with this step
Before you begin the SR process, ZSR can help you:
- Develop your research question using existing frameworks
- Locate previous / exemplar reviews that have been published on your topic (if they exist)
- Find the breadth of literature available on your topic
Develop and refine your research question: PICO
The aim of a SR is to answer a specific research questions. Frameworks are available to help you develop your question and identify search terms that will be useful later on in the process. PICO is the most used framework used in quantitative, clinical-based research and is an acronym for the major concepts in clinical questions.
PICO
| Concept | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Population / Patient | Who is the focus of my question? | adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) |
| Intervention | What is the new intervention of focus? | hydroxyurea |
| Comparison | What is the current or alternative intervention? | placebo |
| Outcome | What is the affected measurable outcome? | vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) |
Research Question:
In adults with sickle cell disease (P), what is the efficacy of hydroxyurea (I) as compared to placebo (C) in reducing vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) (O)?
Build your project team
According the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, a minimum of two reviewers are required to conduct a SR as a means to reduce bias. However, ideally the SR project team includes at least three reviewers and experts from a number of disciplines.
- Three reviewers (minimum). More reviewers reduce bias and can expedite the screening process
- An odd number of reviewers will simplify the tie-breaking process
- SR teams can be large; 10 - 12 project team members is not unusual
- Ensure reviewers are experts in the field of study being researched and represent a diverse spectrum of perspectives
- A librarian consultant or co-author will help in several ways (from search strategy development to conforming to methodological rigor
- A statistician is recommended especially when conducting a meta-analysis
Be sure to define roles & expectations early so the entire project team can contribute to the best of their abilities.
Specify eligibility criteria
Specifying eligibility criteria ( or inclusion and exclusion criteria) helps your project team think critically about what types of citations you plan to include and exclude from your systematic review and reduce bias in SR.
You should make decisions about this criteria AFTER the research question is developed but BEFORE searches are completed. Here are some examples of inclusion or exclusion criteria:
| Type of Criteria | Example |
|---|---|
| Participants | Specific groups of people: age groups, communities, ethnicities, genders |
| Study design | Study types: qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods |
| Intervention | Includes specific therapies, medications, exposures; Excludes those unrelated to your topic |
| Outcome(s) | Includes specific outcomes; Excludes those unrelated to you topic |
| Setting | Specific setting: inpatient, classroom, city, state |
| Publication type | Randomized control trials (Reviews, letters, editorials are often excluded) |
| Publication date | Specific date ranges should be applied when searching |
| Language | Non-English articles are often excluded, but this exclusion could affect the quality of your SR |
Choose review tools
Citation managers are highly recommended to complete a SR relative to collecting, organizing, and uploading of citations, deduplication, and finding PDFs for full text screening. While SR guidelines don't require the use of a citation manager, adopting one into your protocol can make your work much more efficient.
ZSR recommends using the Zotero citation manager. It's free and comes with unlimited file storage when you use your WFU credentials to set up your account.
Software specifically designed to help you manage a SR project is recommended for conducting parts of the process like screening, quality assessment, data extraction, and reporting.
Many free and subscription-based tools are available (Rayyan, Abstrackr, HAWC), but the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Carpenter Library extends its Covidence subscription to anyone with a wakehealth.edu or wfu.edu email extension.
To request an invitation to join the WFU SOM Covidence account CLICK HERE! Please note: ZSR does not offer support for SR software tools other than Covidence.