Standards and guidelines
- Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of Interventions (Version 6)Official handbook detailing process of preparing a Cochrane systematic review. (Cochrane Collaboration)
- JBI Manual for Evidence SynthesisProvides guidance to authors for the conduct and preparation of JBI systematic reviews and evidence syntheses. Includes separate chapters devoted to synthesis of different types of evidence and to address different types of review questions. JBI is an international research organisation based at the University of Adelaide.
- PRISMA: Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysesEvidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating randomized trials, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research.
Several PRISMA Extensions have been developed to facilitate the reporting of different types or aspects of systematic reviews, e.g. Scoping Reviews and Searching. - Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD)CRD is a UK based centre which provides a database of research-based information about the effects of health and social care interventions. The Centre also undertakes systematic reviews evaluating the research evidence on health and public health questions of national and international importance.
- EPPI-Centre methods for conducting systematic reviewsThe EPPI-Centre conducts research in the areas of education, social policy, health promotion, public health and international health systems and development. They also develop methods and tools for conducting systematic reviews of public policy.
Finding systematic reviews
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new windowA regularly updated collection of evidence-based medicine databases, including the Cochrane database of systematic reviews, prepared by the Cochrane Collaboration.
Key areas: allied health; biology; biomedical engineering; clinical medicine; clinicians; drugs; evidence based medicine; healthcare; medicine; pharmacology; psychiatry; reviews
- PROSPERO: International prospective register of systematic reviewsProvides a comprehensive listing of systematic reviews in medicine and health sciences registered at inception to help avoid duplication. Users can register once their systematic review protocol has been finalised.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowComprises more than 32 million citations for biomedical literature; including MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Widely recognized as the premier source for bibliographic and abstract coverage of biomedical literature. Produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
- EMBASE This link opens in a new windowThis major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexes international journals in the following relevant fields: drug research, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, and public health.
- EpistemonikosA collaborative, multilingual database of health evidence. It is the largest source of systematic reviews relevant for health-decision making, and a large source of other types of scientific evidence.
- EPPIProvides access to a number of databases containing primary research studies and evidence reviews, many of which have been used in EPPI-Centre systematic reviews. Topics covered include Health Promotion, Health Interventions, Health Effectiveness and Education.
- TRIPA clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
More about reviews
See Systematic reviews to learn about what a review involves.
See Comprehensive searching for an overview on searching in a systematic way.