Public Health: Systematic reviews
Created by Health Science Librarians
Systematic literature searches in public health
A high quality systematic review should:
- Identify all relevant published and unpublished evidence on a specific research topic
- Select studies or reports for inclusion
- Assess their quality
- Synthesize the findings in an unbiased way
- Interpret the findings and present a balanced and impartial summary
The Guide to Community Preventive Services describes more about systematic reviews for public health. Their reviews on specific public health topics contain findings and recommended interventions.
If you're conducting a systematic review for the first time or if you want to ensure you find all of the relevant literature, please Ask a Librarian.
Writing a review
Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy by ISBN: 9781449694890Publication Date: 2013-06-03Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy: The Matrix Method, Fourth Edition helps students and practitioners better understand scientific literature by instilling the essential skills (via the matrix method) needed to evaluate article findings critically. Covered at the most basic level are the fundamental principles of searching, organizing, reviewing, and synthesizing.
An Introduction to Systematic Reviews by Call Number: Davis: H62.G68 2012ISBN: 9781849201803Publication Date: 2012-04-04Particularly helpful for Policy- and Social Science-related reviews as it draws on the work of the EPPI-Centre (Evidence for Policy & Practice Information-Centre) based in the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education in London.
Overview of the nature, logic, diversity and process of undertaking systematic reviews as part of evidence informed decision making. Covers the full breadth of approaches to reviews from statistical meta analysis to meta ethnography. Five content sections: Approaches to reviewing, Getting started, Gathering and describing research, Appraising and synthesising data, Making use of reviews/models of research use.
Systematic review / protocol registries
- Campbell Collaboration - systematic reviews of the effects of social interventions
- Cochrane Collaboration - systematic reviews of health care and clinical interventions
- PROSPERO - international prospective register of systematic reviews
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