Systematic Review & Evidence Synthesis
This cluster covers the formal methodologies used to aggregate and synthesize existing research literature into a single, rigorous body of evidence, as distinct from primary research or narrative literature reviews. It includes systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and related synthesis methods, along with the protocols, search strategies, and quality-appraisal tools that give these methods their rigor. Two frameworks anchor this space. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) is a reporting guideline — a checklist and flow-diagram structure — that specifies what a systematic review must document to be transparent and reproducible, covering everything from search strategy to study selection and risk-of-bias assessment. It is widely required or recommended by journals publishing this type of research. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions provides the underlying methodological guidance for how a systematic review should actually be conducted, particularly in health and medical research, covering protocol registration, search comprehensiveness, and methods for combining results statistically. For a research administrator, this cluster is relevant to supporting researchers who conduct or contribute to evidence syntheses: understanding what protocol registration involves, what a PRISMA-compliant submission requires from an editorial standpoint, and how systematic reviews differ in scope and rigor from other publication types. It connects to peer-review content, since evidence-synthesis manuscripts are often subject to specialized review criteria, and to publishing-fundamentals content for readers who need a baseline understanding of study types before engaging with synthesis methodology specifically.
Guides
Levels of Evidence: The OCEBM 2011 Table, GRADE, and Where the Pyramid Breaks
A levels-of-evidence hierarchy ranks study design; GRADE rates certainty in one effect estimate for one outcome. This guide sets out what the OCEBM 2011 table actually says, what changed from the 2009 version, the published thresholds at which GRADE upgrades observational evidence or downgrades randomised trials, and what the methodological critique of the evidence pyramid actually argues.
Nominal Group Technique: A Four-Stage Session Script
A runnable nominal group technique session script: the four stages with worked timings, the facilitation rules that carry the method, how the voting and aggregation actually work, what the published evidence says genuinely varies, and a direct comparison with Delphi on cost, anonymity and speed.
AMSTAR 2: The 16-Item Tool for Appraising Systematic Reviews
AMSTAR 2 is the standard tool for appraising the methodological quality of a systematic review. Here is what its 16 items assess and how the confidence rating is calculated.
Realist Review: What It Is and the RAMESES Reporting Standards
A realist review asks why and for whom an intervention works, not just whether it does. Here is the method, context-mechanism-outcome configurations, and the RAMESES reporting standards.
MOOSE Checklist: Reporting Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies
MOOSE is the reporting guideline for meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology. Here is what its 35 items require and when to use it instead of PRISMA.
SQUIRE 2.0: The Reporting Guideline for Quality Improvement Studies
SQUIRE 2.0 is the reporting guideline for healthcare quality improvement studies. Here is what its 18 items require, how it differs from SQUIRE 1.0, and when to use it instead of CONSORT.
PICO Framework: A Question-Formulation Guide for Systematic Review Authors
What the PICO framework is for, the four elements and the comparator/control distinction authors most often botch, the full variant family (PICOT, PICOS, PECO, SPIDER, SPICE, ECLIPSE, CIMO, PCC) and when to use each, how PICO becomes a database search strategy and a PROSPERO/PRISMA-ready protocol, and a fill-in template.
Systematic Review vs Scoping Review: PRISMA Guide
How to tell a systematic review from a scoping review before you commit to one: differing objectives, PRISMA 2020 versus PRISMA-ScR reporting, Cochrane versus JBI frameworks, PROSPERO registration, and whether risk-of-bias appraisal is required for your question.
CHEERS 2022 Checklist: Reporting Economic Evaluations
What the CHEERS 2022 checklist requires when reporting a health economic evaluation, how it differs from CHEERS 2013, and how it relates to CONSORT, STROBE, and PRISMA.
TIDieR Checklist: Describing an Intervention So It Can Be Replicated
The TIDieR checklist is a 12-item reporting guideline for describing interventions in enough detail that another researcher can replicate them. Full checklist, worked guidance, and how it relates to CONSORT, SPIRIT, and PRISMA.
Narrative Synthesis and SWiM: When Meta-Analysis Isn’t Possible
How to synthesize systematic review findings without meta-analysis: the SWiM reporting guideline, common narrative synthesis methods, and when to choose this approach over pooling.
Risk of Bias Assessment: RoB 2, ROBINS-I and the Traffic-Light Plot
A practical guide to the RoB 2 tool for randomized trials and ROBINS-I for non-randomized studies: the domains, judgement categories, and how to build a traffic-light plot with robvis.
Choosing a Critical Appraisal Tool for Your Study Design
A decision table matching study design to the right critical appraisal tool (CASP, AMSTAR 2, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, RoB 2, ROBINS-I, QUADAS-2), plus a step-by-step appraisal procedure and a direct AMSTAR-vs-CASP-vs-Newcastle-Ottawa comparison.
The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS): How to Score Study Quality
How the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) star system works for cohort and case-control studies: the three domains, a worked scoring example, good/fair/poor interpretation, and how NOS compares to ROBINS-I and GRADE.
CASP Checklists: Which One and How to Apply It
A decision table for picking the right CASP checklist by study design (RCT, cohort, qualitative, systematic review and more), how the shared validity/results/applicability structure works, and how CASP compares to JBI, Newcastle-Ottawa, and GRADE.
ARRIVE Guidelines for Animal Research Reporting: The Full 2.0 Checklist
The complete ARRIVE 2.0 checklist for reporting animal research: all 21 items across the Essential 10 and Recommended Set, journal requirements, and how it compares to CONSORT, STROBE, and PRISMA.
The Delphi Method: Building Expert Consensus in Rounds
The Delphi method builds expert consensus through anonymous, iterated rounds of rating and feedback. This guide covers round structure, panel selection, how consensus is measured, stopping rules, and modified/real-time variants, with a worked example.
Searching Grey Literature for a Systematic Review
How to search grey literature for a systematic review: which sources to check (theses, trial registries, conference abstracts, preprints, government/NGO reports), how to translate a search strategy where Boolean syntax isn’t supported, and how to document the search under PRISMA-S so it satisfies PRISMA 2020 reporting.
Fixed-Effect vs. Random-Effects Meta-Analysis: How They Differ and When to Use Each
A side-by-side comparison of the fixed-effect and random-effects meta-analysis models — their assumptions, weighting, and confidence-interval behavior — with one dataset pooled both ways to show exactly how and why the results diverge.
How to Conduct a Scoping Review: A Step-by-Step JBI/PRISMA-ScR Guide
A step-by-step walkthrough of the JBI nine-step scoping review framework, from PCC question and eligibility criteria through charting the data and PRISMA-ScR reporting, plus when a scoping review is the wrong choice.
How to Write a PICOT Question
How to turn a vague research topic into a searchable PICOT question, with an element table, three fully worked conversions, and their Boolean search translations.
How to Detect and Assess Publication Bias
How to detect and assess publication bias in a systematic review or meta-analysis: reading a funnel plot, running Egger’s test, applying trim-and-fill, and correctly interpreting the result.
How to Register a Systematic Review on PROSPERO
A step-by-step walkthrough of registering a systematic review on PROSPERO: when to register, what the form requires, submitting the record, and amending it later.
How to Read a Forest Plot: A Step-by-Step Guide
A step-by-step guide to reading a forest plot: the study rows, confidence-interval whiskers, weights, the diamond, and the line of no effect, walked through with a worked example.
Heterogeneity in Meta-Analysis: I², τ², and Prediction Intervals
How to define, quantify, and investigate heterogeneity in meta-analysis — Cochran’s Q, I², tau-squared, prediction intervals, fixed vs. random-effects models, and PRISMA 2020 reporting requirements.
Boolean Search Operators for Literature Searching
How AND, OR, NOT, nesting, truncation, proximity operators, and field tags/controlled vocabulary combine to build a reproducible database search strategy for systematic and scoping reviews, with a worked PICO example and PRISMA-S reporting guidance.
The EQUATOR Network: Which Reporting Guideline Does Your Study Need?
A study-design routing table for the EQUATOR Network’s reporting guideline library — CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, SPIRIT, STARD, TRIPOD, ARRIVE, SQUIRE, CARE, CHEERS, COREQ/SRQR — with links to CASRAI’s own guideline coverage.
How to Peer Review a Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis
Peer reviewing a systematic review or meta-analysis means checking PRISMA 2020 reporting compliance, search-strategy reproducibility, and risk-of-bias appraisal rigor — not the same checklist used for an original-research manuscript.
Systematic Literature Review Tools: A Comparison Guide
A comparison of the software used across the systematic review pipeline — Covidence, DistillerSR, EPPI-Reviewer, Rayyan, ASReview, RevMan, and Abstrackr — by workflow stage, cost, and best fit.
PRISMA: Full Form, Checklist and Flow Diagram
PRISMA — Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses — is a reporting checklist, not a methodology. This guide covers the full 27-item PRISMA 2020 checklist, the flow diagram, how to use PRISMA in practice, and its main extensions.
