It has been only a year and a few months when I got to know about Systematic Review Articles; it was all a matter of coincidence when I was surfing for scientific researches about recent treatments for a particular type of Leukemia.
I have to admit that it took me a while to find a comprehensive scientific paper with an inclusive content about the topic before I came through an article that included results of multiple scientific research papers with detailed and systematic analysis, besides signifying both the pros and cons of each study. In the conclusion section of the article, there has been a logical deduction based on all the results and analyses provided.
Systematic Review Articles will save time! As long as you look for the most recent updates of results and conclusions of different scientific research papers, Systematic Review Articles are the best option that will enrich your scientific acknowledgment as well.
The upcoming lines will provide you with a brief description of the writing procedures and styles of Systematic Review Articles.
An introduction about Systematic Review Articles
This kind of article is based on strongly-structured researches to minimize error rates and raise the results’ accuracy and credibility. They include numerous high-quality research papers, which is seen as a positive sign of validity. In fact, such kind of articles is rated at Highest Quality of Evidence written by several experts.
Types of Systematic Review Articles
We can divide systemic review articles into two types:
Qualitative Reviews tend to collect data based on observation, interviews, or verbal interaction.
Quantitative Reviews collect numerical data of each research, then apply a statistical analysis to conclude results of higher accuracy as in Meta-Analysis.
Steps of writing Systematic Review Articles:
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Picking the main topic and the research question:
You may decide to write about a particular topic out of your preferred list, or you might be led by other factors as current affairs and events; Covid19 for instance.
In the event you decided to hold a comparison among treatments of disease, try using the following format known as PICO, which will support your research question’s selection:
P –> Patient, Problem, or Population
I –> Intervention
C –> Appropriate Comparisons
O –> Outcome Measures
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Finding related studies and assessing their quality:
Once you have decided on the research question, you need to move forward to collecting related studies that must be of high quality.
In the medical field, you can utilize this list of websites that provide a huge database consisting of numerous research papers about a variety of topics: CINAHL, Embase, and Medline.
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Narrative Synthesis:
Upon accomplishing a good asset of research paper, start accumulating and analyzing results, you better provide a comprehensive abstract-also known as a summary of findings-in a table format for a more explicit presentation.
The main structure of Systematic Review Articles:
It is the same as any research paper which consists of:
Introduction:
A brief phase about the topic with general statements and focus on its importance then, more detailed aspects till the research question is revealed.
Methods:
At this stage, you better highlight the number of research papers in focus, illustrate each with a systematic assessment.
Discussion:
Summarize all your findings and results with a rational discussion regarding the research limitations.
Results:
Both the quality and effectiveness of each study included in your research have to be fully explained within the review of results as it influences the conclusion.
Finally, I recommend that you refer to several systematic review articles that focus on discussing the same research topic you have decided to proceed with before initiating the actual research procedures. By doing so, you likely tend to avoid recurring thoughts and results; unprecedented results are the outcomes of unique research discussions that may enrich your scientific field.
Translated by: Nermeen Ebaid
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