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Preparation and planning

Planning, timescales and criteria

  • Stages of a systematic review

    These are the general stages that you would undertake during a systematic review - a systematic literature review may not undertake all these stages. 

    • Scoping searches, identify review questions, write the protocol 
    • Literature searching 
    • Screening titles and abstracts 
    • Obtaining papers 
    • Selecting full-text papers 
    • Quality assessment 
    • Data extraction 
    • Analysis and synthesis 
    • Writing up and editing 

  • Timescales

    Planning and conducting a systematic review can be a considerably time intensive research project. 

    How long the overall review will take depends on the scope of the review, size and availability of the review team. 

    A well-designed systematic review may take a year or more to complete. 

    The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions gives the following table indicating the estimated time for each element of a systematic review. 

    Month 

    Activity 

    1 - 2 

    Preparation of protocol 

    3 - 8 

    Searches for published and unpublished studies 

    2 - 3 

    Pilot test of eligibility criteria 

    3 - 8 

    Inclusion assessments 

    3 

    Pilot test ‘Risk of bias’ assessment 

    3 - 10 

    Validity assessments 

    3 

    Pilot test of data collection 

    3 - 10 

    Data collection 

    3 - 10 

    Data entry 

    5 - 11 

    Follow up of missing information 

    8 - 10 

    Analysis 

    1 - 11 

    Preparation of review report 

    12 - 

    Keeping the review up-to-date 

    The Cochrane Collaboration. (2011) Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. [Online] [Accessed on 6th August 2018] http://handbook-5-1.cochrane.org/chapter_2/box_2_3_b_timeline_for_a_cochrane_review.htm

  • Inclusion and exclusion criteria

    Inclusion and exclusion criteria are a list of pre-defined characteristics to which literature must adhere to be included in a study. They are vital for the decision-making progress on what to review when undertaking a systematic review and will also help with systematic literature reviews. 

    You should be able to establish your inclusion/exclusion criteria during the process of defining your question. These criteria clearly demonstrate the scope of the study and provide justification for the exclusion of any information that does not meet these characteristics. 

    Criteria

    Example

    Intervention, treatment, process or experience 

    Stage 4 lung disease patients 

    Reported outcomes 

    Quality of life, morbidity, mortality  

    Research methodology 

    Randomised control trial 

    Participants 

    Age, sex, ethnicity etc. 

    Age of study 

    Last 5 years 

    Sample size 

    Over 100 participants 

    Place of study 

    UK based 

    Type of publication 

    Primary research, peer-reviewed 

    Setting 

    Community-based care 

    Language 

    English 

PICO and developing research questions

Your systematic review or systematic literature review will be defined by your research question. A well formulated question will help: 

  • Frame your entire research process 
  • Determine the scope of your review 
  • Provide a focus for your searches 
  • Help you identify key concepts 
  • Guide the selection of your papers 

There are different models you can use to structure help structure a question, which will help with searching. 

You might find that your topic does not always fall into one of the models listed on this page. You can always modify a model to make it work for your topic, and either remove or incorporate additional elements.  

The important thing is to ensure that you have a high-quality question that can be separated into its component parts.

Overview of models

PICO

PICO: 
 

A model commonly used for clinical and healthcare related questions, often, although not exclusively, used for searching for quantitatively designed studies.  

Example question: Does handwashing reduce hospital acquired infections in elderly people? 

P 

Population 

Any characteristic that define your patient or population group.  

Elderly people 

I 

Intervention 

What do you want to do with the patient or population? 

Handwashing 

C 

Comparison (if relevant)  

What are the alternatives to the main intervention? 

No handwashing 

O 

Outcome 

Any specific outcomes or effects of your intervention. 

Reduced infection 
 
 

Richardson, W.S., Wilson, M.C, Nishikawa, J. and Hayward, R.S.A. (1995) ‘The well-built clinical question: a key to evidence-based decisions.’ ACP Journal Club, 123(3) pp. A12 

SPIDER

SPIDER:
 

A model useful for qualitative and mixed method type research questions. 

Example question: What are young parents’ experiences of attending antenatal education? (Cooke et al., 2012) 

S 

Sample 

The group you are focusing on. 

Young parents 

P of I 

Phenomenon of interest  

The behaviour or experience your research is examining. 

Experience of antenatal classes 

D 

Design 

How the research will be carried out? 

Interviews, questionnaires 

E 

Evaluation 

What are the outcomes you are measuring? 

Experiences and views 

R 

Research type 

What is the research type you are undertaking? 

 Qualitative 

Cooke, A., Smith, D. and Booth, A. (2012) ‘Beyond PICO: the SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis.’ Qualitative Health Research, 22(10) pp. 1435-1443 

SPICE

SPICE:
 

A model useful for qualitative and mixed method type research questions.  

Example question: How effective is mindfulness used as a cognitive therapy in a counseling service in improving the attitudes of patients diagnosed with cancer? 

S 

Setting 

The setting or the context 

Counseling service 

P 

Population or perspective 

Which population or perspective will the research be conducted for/from 

Patients diagnosed with cancer 

I 

Intervention 

The intervention been studied 

Mindfulness based cognitive therapy 

C 

Comparison 

 Is there a comparison to be made? 

No  comparison 

E 

Evaluation 

How well did the intervention work, what were the results? 

Assess patients attitudes to see if the intervention improved their quality of life 

Example question taken from: Tate, KJ., Newbury-Birch, D., and McGeechan, GJ. (2018) ‘A systematic review of qualitative evidence of  cancer patients’ attitudes to mindfulness.’ European Journal of Cancer Care, 27(2) pp. 1 – 10. 

ECLIPSE

ECLIPSE:

A model useful for qualitative and mixed method type research questions, especially for question examining particular services or professions. 

Example question: Cross service communication in supporting adults with learning difficulties 

E 

Expectation 

Purpose of the study - what are you trying to achieve? 

How communication can be improved between services to create better care 

C 

Client group 

Which group are you focusing on? 

Adult with learning difficulties 

L 

Location 

Where is that group based? 

Community 

I 

Impact 

If your research is looking for service improvement, what is this and how is it being measured? 

Better support services for adults with learning difficulties through joined up, cross-service working 

P 

Professionals 

What professional staff are involved? 

Community nurses, social workers, carers 

S 

Service  

Which service are you focusing on? 

Adult support services 

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