A literature review that follows a pre-specified, registered protocol to systematically identify, appraise, and synthesise all evidence relevant to a focused research question, using reproducible methods for searching, screening, data extraction, and quality assessment.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A Cochrane systematic review of trials of statins for primary prevention, with PROSPERO registration and PRISMA flow diagram

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A narrative summary of selected papers is not a systematic review even if labelled 'systematic'

Editorial commentary

Distinguished from narrative reviews by being protocol-driven (typically PRISMA-P registered in PROSPERO) and reproducible. Reporting standards include PRISMA 2020. Systematic reviews may or may not include meta-analysis. Cochrane reviews are the canonical exemplar in healthcare.

References

PRISMA 2020 (Page et al. BMJ)
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

Also known as

SR · Systematic literature review

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Systematic review"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/systematic-review" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/systematic-review",
  "name": "Systematic review",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/systematic-review",
  "description": "A literature review that follows a pre-specified, registered protocol to systematically identify, appraise, and synthesise all evidence relevant to a focused research question, using reproducible methods for searching, screening, data extraction, and quality assessment.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-outputs#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/systematic-review",
  "sameAs": [
    "SR",
    "Systematic literature review"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:05:45",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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