What is a systematic review?

• A systematic review brings together a body of evidence focused on a clearly defined research question.
• It identifies all relevant research, appraises the quality, and synthesizes evidence into one document.
• A high quality systematic review brings together evidence in a way which is explicit and reliable.
• The type of systematic review will depend on the research question which is asked. Systematic reviews might synthesise qualitative research, clinical studies or might include a mixture of research studies.
• A systematic review of RCTs provides the best evidence to answer a question about the effect of a treatment.