According to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, a systematic review "attempts to collate all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. It uses explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view to minimizing bias, thus providing more reliable findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made.

The key characteristics of a systematic review are:

• a clearly stated set of objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies
• an explicit, reproducible methodology
• a systematic search that attempts to identify all studies that meet the eligibility criteria
• an assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies, for example through the assessment of risk of bias, and
• a systematic presentation, and synthesis, of the characteristics and findings of the included studies"

Do you need to perform a systematic review to answer your research question? Take this short survey to find out! 

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