Systematic and Scoping Reviews - Health Sciences - Postgraduate Research Support

Scoping Review vs Systematic Review

Image source: JBI (2020)

Developing the Research Question and Formulating Search Strategies

The below tools can assist in developing a clear research question as well as putting together a clearly outlined search strategy for finding literature.

ECLIPSE	Expectation	Client group	Location	Impact	Professionals	Service	Examples
PEO	Patient / Problem / Population	Exposure	Outcome				What are the nurses (population) attitudes (outcome) towards artificial intelligence (exposure)?
PCC	Population	Concept	Context				What patient information programmes (context) are available to undergraduate students (population) to be healthpreneurs (concept)?
PICO (Quantitative)	Population	Intervention	Comparison (if relevant)	Outcome			Are emergency contraception pills (intervention) compared to long term contraception pills (comparison) effective in reducing pregnancy (outcome) among adolescents (population)?
PICo (Qualitative)	Population/Problem	Phenomenon of Interest	Context				What are the experiences of new undergraduate students with online learning at university?
PICOs	Population	Intervention	Comparison (if relevant)	Evaluation	Study design		A quantitative (study design) evaluation (evaluation) of introducing a lifestyle intervention program (intervention) to diabetic patients (population) compared to diabetic patients that are not part of the lifestyle program
SPICE	Setting	Population or Perspective	Intervention	Comparison	Evaluation		What are the benefits (evaluation) of administering PREP (intervention) at university clinics (setting) to first-year undergraduate students compared to first-year postgraduate students (comparison)
SPIDER	Sample (the group your research is focused on)	Phenomenon of Interest	Design	Evaluation	Research Type		What are the experiences (evaluation) of adolescent girls (sample) taking TB treatment (phenomenon of interest)

Sources: Booth (2006); Cooke et al. (2013); Covidence (2024); Foster & Jwel (2022); Methley et al. (2014); Noyes et al. (2023) and UWC (2022)

Scoping Reviews (Broad Question - Identify Evidence and possible Gaps)

Source: Mellor (n.d.)

Registering a Protocol

How To Conduct A Systematic Review and Write-Up in 7 Steps

Writing your Search Strategy

Video: How to Search for Journal Articles

How to Search for Journal Articles

Entry Terms

Synonyms

Other terms/synonyms

How to use MeSH

How to use Emtree

Articles

Databases

Reports or other publications

Useful Links

Webinars from start to finish: Creating a Review

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

Covidence Knowledge Base (Support Information and Resources)

From Arksey and O’Malley and Beyond: Customizations to enhance............

JBI Evidence Synthesis Resources

Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework

Quality Assessment Systematic Review

Covidence Further Reading List (Dr A Makkink)

Grey Literature

Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Systematic Reviews (Focused Specific Question - Derive a Conclusion)

Source: Covidence (n.d.)

Registering a Protocol: Where to Register Protocols?

Open Science Framework (OSF)

"An open source, multidisciplinary web application that connects and supports the research workflow. Researchers use the OSF to collaborate, document, archive, share, and register research projects, materials, and data. OSF can be used to pre-register a systematic review protocol and to share documents such as a Zotero library, search strategies, and data extraction forms.

Disciplines: All

Unlike other registries, evidence synthesis author teams do not submit their protocols for review by an editorial board before they are accepted and pre-registered on OSF. Instead, create your own pre-registration (instructions here).

OSF has a Generalized Systematic Review Registration Form that is designed for use across disciplines and evidence synthesis types (e.g., scoping reviews, meta-analysis). Check out an example of a pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis protocol here.

Cochrane
"Our mission is to promote evidence-informed health decision-making by producing high-quality, relevant, accessible systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence. Our work is internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care."

Disciplines: Healthcare

Campbell Collaboration
"The Campbell Collaboration promotes positive social and economic change through the production and use of systematic reviews and other evidence synthesis for evidence-based policy and practice."

Disciplines: Business and Management, Crime and Justice, Disability, Education, International Development, Knowledge Translation and Implementation, Methods, Nutrition, and Social Welfare

Collaboration for Environmental Evidence
An open community of stakeholders working towards a sustainable global environment and the conservation of biodiversity. CEE seeks to promote and deliver evidence syntheses on issues of greatest concern to environmental policy and practice as a public service.

Disciplines: Environmental issues

PROSPERO
An international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care. Key features from the review protocol are recorded and maintained as a permanent record. (Does not accept scoping reviews)

Disciplines: Health and Social Care, Welfare, Public Health, Education, Crime, Justice, and International Development."

Source: Cornell University (2024)

International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)

An International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) is a stable, unique identifier used to identify a protocol or proposal (RR1 papers) and link it to all subsequent results papers (RR2 papers). The IRRID is based on the DOI of the protocol paper (See What is a Registered Report? and Elements of an IRRID. Click link for more information.