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General considerations for doing a systematic review
- Know your end product. What is at least one thing you know that are you going to produce ? Literature reviews can introduce (or be sections of) larger projects. Literature reviews can also be stand-alone end products. Find an example of the kind of document that you will end up with.
- A central feature from the beginning of the process is the documentation of all steps used or choices (and the associated reasoning and/or observations for each of those). Also, adjustments to your goals or planned steps might be required as you proceed; document these.
- Also, for large projects much of the SR literature explains the value of having two investigators involved, and so that can be considered. Inter-rater reliability can be assessed regarding the selection of items, 'extraction of information', etc.
- Another significant consideration can be the creation of an a priori protocol that stipulates goals and actions to be taken for every step in the process; a protocol supports transparency, helps to guard against bias and process subjectivity, and it is expected for those submitting SR to the organizations such as the Campbell or Cochrane Collaboration. For protocol examples and steps, see the manuals under the tab for Manuals; also see the protocols at this site. There is debate in the literature about protocols, and, in fact, most/all guidance does note that some iterative processes are/can be needed.
- Learn about software that can support stages or the whole process of SR. For example, at left see "Comparisons, software...".
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