Back to: Introduction to Evidence Synthesis
Animation by: MotionMorsels
As the video above explains, a systematic review follows six main steps:
1. Prepare your topic: Talk with stakeholders and experts and do a quick scan of available research to craft questions that are specific and relevant
2. Search for studies: Find research studies that are potentially related to your question
3. Screen studies: Exclude studies that don’t address your question
4. Extract data: Collect relevant data from all the remaining studies
5. Analyze and synthesize data: Combine and evaluate the information you’ve selected from these studies
6. Report your findings: Turn the synthesis of information into a coherent narrative of what you’ve discovered
On the next few pages, we’ll give a brief explanation of each step, starting with “Prepare your topic.”