How to choose a review type

Use a literature review to map a field. Use a systematic review when you will name the search, the screen, and the exclude reasons. Use a scoping review to map what exists before you narrow the question. Use a meta-analysis only when the included studies report numbers you can combine. Do not call a narrative summary a meta-analysis.

1. Name the decision. Do you need a map, a reproducible screen, or a combined number?
2. Write the search rule. A systematic review names the databases and the date. A literature review may not.
3. Write the exclude rule. If you cannot say why a paper is out, you are not running a systematic review.
4. Stop at the number. Combine results only when the outcomes are the same measure. Otherwise stop at the table.

PICO Portal Individual keeps the search and the screen. It does not compute a pooled effect. If you need a meta-analysis, export the table and run the statistics elsewhere.

Open this step in PICO Portal Individual

Count the records first. A literature review, a systematic review, a scoping review, and a meta-analysis answer different questions. The time follows the count, not the size of a team.

The rule, the date, and the count. Use a literature review to map a field. Use a systematic review when you will name the search, the screen, and the exclude reasons. Use a scoping review to map what exists before you narrow the question. Use a meta-analysis only when the included studies report numbers you can combine. Do not call a narrative summary a meta-analysis.

Not to start. PICO Portal Individual does not score a second reviewer. If the protocol asks for dual review, a second person sees the same record.

A file with no reason. Use a literature review to map a field. Use a systematic review when you will name the search, the screen, and the exclude reasons. Use a scoping review to map what exists before you narrow the question. Use a meta-analysis only when the included studies report numbers you can combine. Do not call a narrative summary a meta-analysis.

The count matches the records. If a flow-diagram box would not match, the step is not done.

The rule, the date, and the count. A reader must be able to open the same record.

No, if you will call the work a systematic review. If you skip it, write what you did. Do not hide the gap.

Stop. Write how far you got. Records you did not screen are not exclusions.

The rule, a sample of decisions, and the passage.

A guideline panel, a CRO, and a GRADE meeting. PICO Portal Individual keeps the search and the screen. It does not compute a pooled effect. If you need a meta-analysis, export the table and run the statistics elsewhere.