How To Write A Systematic Literature Review In 7 Simple Steps

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The systematic search strategy acts as a compass, guiding you through the waves of information, while literature review tools help you navigate the powerful currents of scholarly articles. Dive in and discover the treasures that await in the sea of systematic literature review!

What Is Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review (SLR) identifies, selects, and critically appraises research in order to answer a clearly formulated question. The systematic review should follow a clearly defined protocol or plan where the criteria are clearly stated before the review is conducted. It is a comprehensive, transparent search conducted over multiple databases and grey literature that can be replicated and reproduced by other researchers.

It involves planning a well-thought-out search strategy that has a specific focus or answers a defined question. The review identifies the type of information searched, critiqued, and reported within known timeframes. The search terms, search strategies, and limits all need to be included in the review.

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Characteristics of Systematic Literature Review

Key Characteristics of Systematic Reviews

My systematic reviews are all about quality. Each review needs to have a clear set of objectives.

I need to know what I'm looking for and why I'm looking for it.

I need to have a reproducible methodology, which means that I need to have a defined set of rules that I follow so that anyone who follows those rules should get the same results.

I need to have a systematic search strategy that should help me to find every single study that I'm looking for.

I need to make sure that my search strategy is not biased. I need to assess the quality of the studies that I find.

I need to make sure that the results of the studies that I find make sense.

I need to bring all of the results of these studies together so that I can make sense of them all. Otherwise, I'm just looking at a bunch of confusing data that doesn't tell me anything.

Protocols of Systematic Reviews

Systematic reviews are guided by plans that are devised by researchers before they are conducted. These plans are known as protocols. Systematic review protocols may include the rationale for the systematic review.

I need to know why I'm looking for a study.

I need to know what I'm looking for and why I'm looking for it. The method of the systematic review, including the inclusion and exclusion criteria for study selection.

I need to know what I'm looking for

I need to know what I'm looking for and what I'm not looking for. Otherwise, I might end up looking at studies that don't make any sense to my study.

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Pros and Cons of Systematic Literature Review

Pros of Systematic Literature Reviews

Systematic literature reviews are incredibly useful for getting an overall picture of the current state of knowledge in a specific area. The systematic method helps reduce bias, as it leaves no room for cherry-picking, and the transparency of the methodology and search strategy allows the review to be easily replicated. This enhances the credibility of the review and gives readers confidence in the conclusions.

This type of review is much more rigorous than other types of reviews, which usually lean heavily on the personal opinions and interests of the author. The systematic review is more objective and the search strategy reduces the risk of reviewers inadvertently missing important studies that might support an alternative position.

Cons of Systematic Literature Reviews

The trade-off for the benefits of systematic literature reviews is that they do take more time than other types of review. This makes them more expensive, and they can also be more difficult to carry out. It is also worth noting that grey literature, such as government reports and policy documents, are not usually included in systematic reviews. This can significantly bias the perspectives that systematic reviews can offer.

How To Write a Systematic Literature Review Effectively

Identifying a Research Question

To write an effective systematic literature review, the first step is to identify a clear and centered research question. The question needs to be focused, concise, complex, and arguable. To develop this question, you should conduct quick literature searches and ask questions about your topic. By using frameworks to narrow and focus your question, you'll be able to establish a strong foundation for your review.

Developing a Review Protocol

Once you have your research question, the next step is to develop a review protocol. This detailed plan outlines your rationale and methodology for the systematic review. It's crucial to create this protocol at the beginning of your research and refine it as you move forward. Publishing your protocol in a register or journal helps prevent duplication of reviews, reduces bias, promotes methodological transparency, and allows for peer review.

Conducting Systematic Searching

Systematic searching involves several steps, beginning with the development of a search strategy. Text mining and search filters can also be used to conduct a full review. Deciding where to search, running searches, documenting your strategy, reviewing, and updating your search are all integral to this process.

Screening Studies

Screening is the process of identifying studies from your searches that meet your inclusion criteria. Each article must be assessed to determine its relevance to your research question and whether it should be included in your review.

Critical Appraisal and Evaluation

Critical appraisal involves examining research to assess its trustworthiness, value, and relevance to your research question. Determining if the research was conducted to minimize bias, what the findings' impact and importance are, and whether the results are applicable to your research are part of this evaluation.

Data Extraction

After selecting the articles for your review, you need to extract relevant data from them systematically. This process is typically structured and presented in tables in the final review report.

Writing and Publishing the Review

The final step involves writing the systematic literature review and publishing it. Charles Sturt University's Research Office provides research literacy support for staff and HDR students to help with writing programs and professional development sessions.

Unriddle Allows You to Read Faster and Write Better

Quickly find info in documents, simplify complex topics, take notes and write with the power of AI. Unriddle is trusted by thousands of researchers and students, from the classroom to the boardroom.

Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of any document so you can quickly find, summarize, and understand info. No more endless skimming.

Unriddle understands the meaning behind your writing and automatically links you to relevant things you’ve read and written about in the past.

Highlight text and Unriddle will show you the most relevant sources from your library using AI. Never lose a citation again.

Generate text with AI autocomplete to improve and expand your writing, with all suggestions based on the context of what you're working on.

Step into a collaborative workspace where everyone can contribute and chat with the same documents in real-time, and much more!

Read faster & write better — try Unriddle for free today.

Complete Step-by-Step Guide On How To Use Unriddle's AI Research Tool

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use Unriddle. I’ve also copied it below :)

From here, it's pretty simple.

Unriddle helps you read, write and learn faster.

Interact with documents via AI so you can quickly find and understand info.

Then start writing in a new Note and Unriddle will show you relevant content from your library as you type.

Get started by uploading a document.

Or read on for the full rundown.

Interact with documents

When you upload a document, Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of this data.

Click 'New' in the right sidebar and then select 'Upload' to get started.

Use this assistant to answer specific questions about the text, summarize content and simplify jargon.

The trick is to be super clear about what you want.

If you're summarizing a research paper, for example, instead of saying “Summarize” or “Summarize this research paper”, say something like “Explain this research paper to me in simple terms. What method did the researchers use? What did they find? Why does it matter?”.

The second prompt will produce a much better overview of the paper because we're giving the AI more hints about what we want.

Automatic relations

Unriddle grasps the context behind each Note and Document in your library and automatically links them based on meaning.

Let's say you have a collection of nuclear physics papers in your library.

When you start writing a note about The Manhattan Project, simply mentioning "The Manhattan Project" will prompt Unriddle to find the connection between this note and the nuclear physics papers.

Even if you didn't explicitly mention the research papers, Unriddle's knowledge of Oppenheimer, his work, and the significant relevance of these papers means it understands the connection and automatically links them together.

In short, Unriddle shows you relevant content from your library at the exact moment you need it, even if you haven't explicitly mentioned it.

Citing your sources

Writing is hard when you have a ton of sources to track.

So we made it easy.

Highlight some text, click ‘Cite’ and you’ll see items from your library that contain information related to the selection of text you just highlighted as determined by our AI.

When you select an item Unriddle inserts a link into highlighted text that, when clicked, takes you to the referenced item.

Writing with AI

Click ‘New’ in the sidebar and hit ‘Note’ to open up a new note.

Here you’ll find all the text formatting options you’re used to and more.

Type ‘++’ to generate text based on the context of what’s already written.

Highlight text and click ‘Ask AI’ to open up the AI menu where you’ll find options to improve, expand, summarize and explain.

You can type custom prompts too!

Finally, you can open any note in a pane on the right side of the screen while interacting with documents. Just click the orange pencil icon at the top of the chat window.

Chat Settings

Adjust the model, temperature and response length in the Setting sidebar.

Click the cog icon in the top right corner of the screen and look for "Chat Settings".

These apply across all documents but you can easily flip between them regardless of settings at the time of upload.

Model: the machine learning model used to generate responses.

Temperature: the amount of creative license you give to the AI.

Max length: the maximum number of words generated in a response.

Got feedback or questions? Send us an email and we'll get back to you within a day.

— Naveed

Is Rapid Literature Review the Same As Systematic Literature Review?

Key Difference Between a Rapid Review and a Systematic Review

Rapid Review vs. Systematic Review: The Main Difference

On systematic literature reviews, I'm happy to help clarify the main difference between a rapid review and a systematic review. A rapid review is a type of literature review that is conducted much more quickly than a traditional systematic review.

The purpose of a rapid review is to synthesize the existing literature on a topic in a timely manner to inform quick decision-making. Rapid reviews are often conducted when there is a pressing need for information and a traditional systematic review would take too long to complete.

Systematic Reviews: The Standard in Research

A systematic review, on the other hand, is a comprehensive and rigorous review of the literature that follows a predetermined protocol to ensure that all relevant studies are included and that the synthesis of the evidence is conducted in an unbiased and reproducible manner. Systematic reviews are considered the gold standard in research synthesis and are widely used in evidence-based decision-making in healthcare and other fields.

Time Frame: Rapid Reviews vs. Systematic Reviews

The main difference between a rapid review and a systematic review lies in the time frame and process. Rapid reviews are designed to be completed in a much shorter time frame than a systematic review, usually taking weeks rather than months.

Systematic reviews, on the other hand, can take months to complete due to the rigorous nature of the process. The time-consuming methods used in a systematic review ensure a comprehensive and unbiased synthesis of the evidence, making them the most reliable source of evidence in research and clinical practice.

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Read Faster & Write Better With Unriddle for Free Today

Unriddle is a powerful tool that will revolutionize the way you approach research. This innovative platform allows you to read faster and write better by simplifying complex topics, finding information quickly, and taking efficient notes. Unriddle's AI assistant helps users understand information more easily, saving time and improving productivity.

With Unriddle, you can be confident in the accuracy and relevance of your research, thanks to its advanced AI capabilities. Unriddle helps you generate text with AI autocomplete, improves your writing, and expands your knowledge with context-based suggestions. Join the Unriddle community and benefit from its collaborative workspace where you can easily contribute and interact with other researchers in real-time.

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