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Searching & Managing Information for Systematic Reviews/Evidence Syntheses

Question Formulation

 

Ask the following questions: 

Is a similar review currently being planned or conducted?
The first thing to ask at the planning stage is if a similar review is being conducted or planned by another research team?  To find out, search Prospero, the international register of systematic reviews, rapid reviews, and umbrella reviews in health and social care. 

Has a systematic review already been published?
You will probably have come across any published reviews when you did your preliminary search of the literature using the relevant databases. You can filter to systematic review or review papers in most databases. If you are unsure, check with your Subject Librarian. 
 

Once you’ve conducted a preliminary literature review and identified the gaps and rationale for conducting a systematic review, the next step is to formulate a clear and focused question. 

  • Ensure your question is specific and unambiguous. Avoid vague terms and ensure that all aspects of the question are clearly defined.
  • Consider whether the question is feasible in terms of the available evidence. There should be enough studies or data available to answer the question.
  • Broad questions can be difficult to address comprehensively. Narrow down the question to focus on specific aspects that can be effectively reviewed.

Use a structured framework to help with this for example, PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) for clinical questions or PICOS (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Study design).

Other frameworks like SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) are useful for qualitative research.

Note: Having a good focused and answerable question will also help you to devise precise and effective literature search strategies.

The PICO model is widely used in Evidence-Based Practice to assist in the formulation of clinical questions. It stands for:

POPULATION    Who are the patients or population group?
INTERVENTION  What is the intervention or treatment being considered?
COMPARISON  Is there a control or alternative intervention to compare?
OUTCOME    What are the outcomes of interest?
What will the intervention accomplish or effect?

PICO Example

You can view the PICO associated with all reviews in the Cochrane Library. Here’s an example where the review question focused on ‘Interventions for treating leg ulcers in people with sickle cell disease’. 

Inclusion and exclusion criteria are predefined conditions used to determine which studies will be included in a review and which will be excluded. They are defined after the formulation of a research question. 

Inclusion criteria are specific characteristics that studies must have to be considered for the systematic review. These criteria help ensure that the studies included are relevant and of sufficient quality to answer the research question.

Exclusion criteria are specific characteristics that disqualify studies from being included in the systematic review. These criteria are used to filter out studies that are irrelevant, of low quality, or do not meet the research objectives.


This image from the University Of Melbourne shows some Common Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

Common-Inclusion-Exclusion-Criteria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: https://unimelb.libguides.com/c.php?g=492361&p=3368110