Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Conducting a systematic review or meta-analysis may seem daunting. It helps to break the process down into manageable steps as this resource does, courtesy of Kate McAllister at the University of Edinburgh.

The Evidence Synthesis Team at Cornell University Library has created a guide to conducting systematic reviews that breaks the process down into eleven steps. The guide provides an exceptionally clear explanation of how to conduct a systematic review.

Abstrackr is a free, open-source, web-based application for facilitating citation screening for systematic reviews. The program comprises two components; a web-based annotation tool that allows participants in a review to collaboratively screen citations for relevance, and machine learning technologies that semi-automate this process.

Covidence is an online systematic review program developed by, and for, systematic reviewers. It can import citations from reference managers like EndNote, facilitate the screening of abstracts and full-text, populate risk of bias tables, assist with data extraction, and export to all common formats. A free trial is available on the Covidence website.

Upload your references from any reference management software, create screening and data extraction forms, lay out workflow and assign reviewers, monitor study progress and review process, export results (incl PRISMA flowchart automation). Free for students.

The System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information (SUMARI) is JBI's software for the systematic review of literature. It is designed to assist researchers to conduct systematic reviews and facilitates the entire review process. SUMARI supports 10 review types. It is especially useful for new review types and qualitative reviews. A free trial is available to users.

Rayyan is a free online tool that can be used for screening and coding of studies in a systematic review. It uses tagging and filtering to code and organise references.

RevMan 5 is the software used for preparing and maintaining Cochrane Reviews. RevMan facilitates preparation of protocols and full reviews, including text, characteristics of studies, comparison tables, and study data. It can perform meta-analysis of the data entered, and present the results graphically. RevMan Web is the next generation of Cochrane's software for preparing and maintaining systematic reviews. This web-based version of RevMan works across all platforms, is installation-free, and automatically updated.

The IEBH SR-Accelerator is a suite of tools to speed up steps in the Systematic Review (SR) process. It is freely available for anyone in the world to use. Simply register with your name and email address. The SRA is a modular design which means the tools can be incorporated into existing SR workflows and combined with other automation tools. Current tools are being continually reviewed and refined with additional tools being developed.

The Systematic Review Toolbox is a web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process. The toolbox aims to help researchers and reviewers find the following: software tools, quality assessment / critical appraisal checklists, reporting standards, guidelines

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) is an evidence-based minimum set of items aimed at helping authors to report a wide array of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that assess the benefits and harms of a health care intervention

CASP has created an appraisal form for systematic reviews consisting of ten questions that you can ask to evaluate the quality of an SR.

Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine provides critical appraisal worksheets to help you appraise the reliability, importance and applicability of clinical evidence in your review.

The Cochrane Handbook has become the de facto standard for conducting systematic reviews. Chapter 4, Searching for and Selecting Studies, is particularly helpful for planning reviews.

The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) has been updated and methodologically refined. The AGREE II is now the new international tool for the assessment of practice guidelines. The AGREE II is both valid and reliable and comprises 23 items organized into the original 6 quality domains

EQUATOR (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research) network website lists reporting guidelines for the main study types.