Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A Cochrane living systematic review of COVID-19 therapeutics, updated weekly during the pandemic
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A one-off systematic review published in 2020 with no subsequent updates is not living
Editorial commentary
Cochrane and the BMJ have led adoption. Living systematic reviews require a sustainable team, a stable hosting infrastructure, and clear policies on when to update (continuously, monthly, on trigger). Used heavily during COVID-19 for time-sensitive evidence (e.g., on therapeutics).
References
- Elliott et al. 2017 PLOS Medicine on Living Systematic Reviews
- Cochrane Living Systematic Reviews guidance (2019)
Also known as
LSR · Living SR
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
xml
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Living systematic review"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/living-systematic-review" />json
{
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"name": "Living systematic review",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/living-systematic-review",
"description": "A systematic review that is continuously updated — typically by re-running the registered search, screening newly-identified studies, and incorporating eligible ones into the synthesis — with explicit triggers for major versus minor updates and a publicly maintained version history.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-outputs-expanded/",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/living-systematic-review",
"sameAs": [
"LSR",
"Living SR"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
