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
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.
