Research Guides: Systematic Reviews in Medicine: Guidelines and Online Tools

Key Templates

PRISMA 2020 Flow Diagrams
The flow diagram depicts the flow of information through the different phases of a systematic review. It maps out the number of records identified, included and excluded, and the reasons for exclusions. Different templates are available depending on the type of review (new or updated) and sources used to identify studies.
JBI Scoping Review Network Resources
The JBI Scoping Review Network is supported by the JBI Scoping Review Methodology Group, who are methodologists passionate about developing resources and educating individuals, organisations and institutions on the best approach to scoping reviews.

Key Websites and Standards

PRISMA: Transparent Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses PRISMA should be the starting point for developing any systematic reviews or meta-analyses. Please the "Key Documents" listed on the website to ensure that the project is set-up properly and runs smoothly.
JBI: Joanna Briggs Institute
Cochrane Handbook Online

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions by Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (Eds.) The revised edition of the Handbook offers the only guide on how to conduct, report and maintain a Cochrane Review   The second edition of The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains essential guidance for preparing and maintaining Cochrane Reviews of the effects of health interventions. Designed to be an accessible resource, the Handbook will also be of interest to anyone undertaking systematic reviews of interventions outside Cochrane, and many of the principles and methods presented are appropriate for systematic reviews addressing research questions other than effects of interventions. This fully updated edition contains extensive new material on systematic review methods addressing a wide-range of topics including network meta-analysis, equity, complex interventions, narrative synthesis, and automation. Also new to this edition, integrated throughout the Handbook, is the set of standards Cochrane expects its reviews to meet.  Written for review authors, editors, trainers and others with an interest in Cochrane Reviews, the second edition of The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions continues to offer an invaluable resource for understanding the role of systematic reviews, critically appraising health research studies and conducting reviews. 
Publication Date: 2019
Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews by Committee on Standards for Systematic Reviews of Comparative Effectiveness Research, Institute of Medicine, Board on Health Care Services Staff, Morton S, Berg A, Levit L, Eden J Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.
Publication Date: 2011

Other Checklists, Guidelines, and Worksheets

AI Tools for Evidence Synthesis

CMU Critical Appraisal Worksheet

CONSORT Statement: Checklist and Flow Diagram
Equator Network Reporting Guidelines for Main Study Types The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network is an international initiative that seeks to improve the reliability and value of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting and wider use of robust reporting guidelines.
Guide to the DMP Assistant Template for Systematic Review Projects The purpose of this guide is to provide additional guidance and examples for creating a data management plan for your systematic review (or other knowledge synthesis) project using Canada's DMP Assistant template for Systematic Reviews.
MECIR Manual The MECIR Standards present a guide to the conducting and reporting of Cochrane Intervention Reviews. Includes the reporting of protocols and the planning, conducting and reporting of updates
Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) Levels of Evidence The CEBM ‘Levels of Evidence 1’ document sets out one approach to systematising the process of rating the quality of evidence for different question types.
STROBE Statement: Checklist STROBE stands for an international, collaborative initiative of epidemiologists, methodologists, statisticians, researchers and journal editors involved in the conduct and dissemination of observational studies, with the common aim of STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology.
TIDieR Checklist The TIDieR (Template for Intervention Description and Replication) Checklist is information to include when describing an intervention and the location of the information.
Templates and Checklists for Tracking a Systematic Review (S Swanburg, Michigan School of Psychology)

SR-Accelerator
The IEBH SR-Accelerator is a suite of tools to speed up steps in the Systematic Review (SR) process. It is freely available for anyone in the world to use. Simply register below with your name and email address.
SR Tool Box
The Systematic Review Toolbox is a web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process.
Evidence Synthesis Hackathon Projects
Software available and in development that can assist with different stages of evidence synthesis research.

Systematic Review Tools

Rayyan
Rayyan is a web application and sorting tool to help systematic review authors screen abstracts for inclusion. Authors create systematic reviews, collaborate on them, maintain them over time and get suggestions for article inclusion. Rayyan has a free version and fee options.
PICO Portal
PICO Portal assists you with identifying relevant citations, de-duplication, screening, full-text review, and evidence mapping in your next systematic review. Offers a free trial and paid licenses.
Covidence
Software that allows you to import citations, screen titles and abstracts, upload references, screen full text, create forms, populate risk of bias tables, do data extraction, and export reviews. Use the free trial.
SysRev
Sysrev.com is a free document review platform. It helps you create pdf, pubmed, and general academic article reviews.
Abstrackr
Abstrackr helps you upload and organize the results of a literature search for a systematic review. It also makes it possible for your team to screen, organize, and manipulate all of your abstracts in one place.
Cadima
CADIMA is a free web tool facilitating the conduct and assuring for the documentation of systematic reviews, systematic maps and further literature reviews.
DistillerSR
DistillerSR helps leading research organizations conduct better, faster systematic reviews to deliver transparent, reproducible and audit-ready results every time. DistillerSR is a paid service.

Zotero
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.
EndNote Basic
EndNote basic is a more limited reference management solution that is only available online. EndNote basic users can create an online library with a maximum of 50,000 references and up to 2GB of attachments.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager and an academic social network. Requires one-time registration to use this citation management tool.
Deduplicator
From SR-Accelerator. This is a tool that will help to de-duplicate search results from a library of articles.

BalanceBraces.com
Balance braces, parentheses, brackets, and tags in your code.
ISSG Search Filter Resource
The InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group Search Filter Resource provides easy access to published and unpublished search filters. It also provides information and guidance on how to critically appraise search filters, study design filters in progress and information on the development and use of search filters.
Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS)
This article contains the guideline statement and checklist for using PRESS, a peer-review of an electronic search strategy. Use this checklist to review your systematic review search.
Polyglot
From SR-Accelerator. Will translate a PubMed search into searches that will work in other databases.
Preprint Repository Search Syntax Table
From the University of Minnesota Libraries. While it contains data about searching for preprints, it also includes search syntax for common systematic review databases.
PRISMA for Searching (PRISMA-Search)
The PRISMA extension for searching was published in 2021. The checklist includes 16 reporting items, each of which is detailed with exemplar reporting and rationale.
Search Refinery
From SR-Accelerator. Using a PubMed search and IDs from key articles, this tool analyzes your search to remove non-essential terms.
searchRxiv
From CABI Digital Library, searchRxiv (pronounced “search archive”) has been established to support researchers to report, store and share their searches consistently and to enable them to review and re-use existing searches.
Search Smart
Search Smart is a decision tool that allows you to choose which databases to use based on the criteria needed for your research.
Yale MeSH Analyzer
This online tool allows you to search up to 20 PubMed articles (by PubMed ID) at a time and analyze the MeSH headings related to each.

Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) Tool
Version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2) is the recommended tool to assess the risk of bias in randomized trials included in Cochrane Reviews.
JBI Critical Appraisal Tools
From the Joanna Briggs Institute, checklists for case reports, cross sectional studies, cohort studies, prevalence studies, qualitative research, randomized controlled trials, and more.
LATITUDES
LATITUDES is a searchable library of validity assessment tools for use in evidence syntheses.
Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS)
Used for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses.
ROBINS-l Tool
From the Cochrane Library, the ROBINS-I tool (“Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions”) is concerned with evaluating risk of bias in estimates of the effectiveness or safety (benefit or harm) of an intervention from studies that did not use randomisation to allocate interventions.
STROBE Checklists for Observational Study Quality Assessment
Includes checklists for cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies.

Covidence
Software that allows you to import citations, screen titles and abstracts, upload references, screen full text, create forms, populate risk of bias tables, do data extraction, and export reviews. Use the free trial.
GRADEpro
From scoping through summarizing the evidence to making recommendations and dissemination, GRADEpro guides through the process of guideline development while seamlessly making sure it adheres to the GRADE methodology. To help in dissemination and support shared decision-making, carefully designed and audience-specific presentations and interactive decision aids can be created for all final recommendations. Use the free, single user license.
Methods Wizard
Helps automatically generate a Methods section for your systematic review article.
OpenMeta[Analyst]
OpenMeta[Analyst] is an open-source, cross-platform, point and click tool to perform meta-analysis.
PICO Portal
PICO Portal assists you with identifying relevant citations, de-duplication, screening, full-text review, and evidence mapping in your next systematic review. Offers a free version and paid licenses.
RevMan
Review Manager 5 (RevMan 5) is the software used for preparing and maintaining Cochrane Reviews. RevMan facilitates preparation of protocols and full reviews, including text, characteristics of studies, comparison tables, and study data. It can perform meta-analysis of the data entered, and present the results graphically. You can also use RevMan to write reviews of diagnostic test accuracy studies, reviews of studies of methodology and overviews of reviews.
SRDR Plus
SRDR Plus (The Systematic Review Data Repository: Plus) is a tool for extracting, managing, and archiving data. It is an open and searchable archive of systematic reviews and their data.