About this guide

This guide provides a structured overview of the key steps involved in conducting a systematic review. It is designed to support students, researchers, and academic staff who are planning or currently undertaking a review as part of a research project, thesis, or publication. UWS Library Services can support you at each stage - from planning and searching to managing results and reporting.

The guide covers the following topics:

• The purpose and characteristics of systematic reviews
• How to plan and structure your review
• Developing a clear research question
• Designing and documenting an effective search strategy
• Managing search results and screening studies
• Extracting and appraising data
• Synthesising findings and reporting your results
• Tools, templates, and support available from UWS Library Services.

Each section outlines best practices, recommended tools, and guidance on where to seek further help. The content is intended to be practical, clear, and aligned with current research standards. Systematic reviews follow a clear, structured process to identify, evaluate, and summarise research evidence.

The systematic review process

A systematic review brings together existing research to answer a clearly defined question, using explicit and reproducible methods. They are an essential tool for helping researchers, practitioners, and students make sense of the large and rapidly growing body of evidence.

The process typically involves: developing a protocol, finding and selecting relevant studies, assessing study quality, extracting data, synthesising results, and interpreting the findings. Systematic reviews can address a wide range of questions—for example, about the effectiveness of interventions, diagnostic accuracy, prognosis, prevalence, or qualitative experiences.

It is important to define clear criteria (such as population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes) and to assess potential risks of bias. Some types of review can be more methodologically complex than others, particularly when dealing with qualitative evidence, complex interventions, or unvalidated outcome measures.

A wide range of resources and tools are available to support the planning and conduct of systematic reviews, and it’s best to consult these early in the process.

Pollock, A. and Berge, E. (2018) 'How to do a systematic review', International Journal of Stroke, 13(2), pp. 138-156. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1747493017743796 (Accessed: 29 May 2025).