Skip to Main Content

Systematic Reviews And Other Review Types

This guide will assist you in starting your systematic, scoping and other reviews.

Prisma Recommended Diagram and Guidelines

PRISMA logo

PRISMA stands for Preferred Reporting in Systematic and Meta-Analysis. It is the generally accepted body that sets standards and guidelines for systematic reviews. 

Should you decide to register a systematic review, per PRISMA protocols, you will need an official search strategy detailing your search strategy for one database. Your librarian can help with this.

PRISMA: Scoping Reviews http://www.prisma-statement.org/Extensions/ScopingReviews

PRISMA: Systematic Reviews http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist

PRISMA DIAGRAM: The PRISMA diagram is a universally recognized flowchart that details how many different sources of information pertaining to your subject you where you got them from. It also tracks how many articles are left/discarded after being subjected to the following rounds of eliminations.

  • Eliminate any duplicates.
  • Eliminate sources based on their title and abstract and your inclusion/exclusion criteria.
  • Eliminate sources based on a reading of their full text and your inclusion/exclusion criteria.

There are four different flow diagrams to choose from which are located at:

http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/FlowDiagram:

  • PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for new systematic reviews which included searches of databases and registers only
  • PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for new systematic reviews which included searches of databases, registers and other sources
  • PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for updated systematic reviews which included searches of databases and registers only
  • PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for updated systematic reviews which included searches of databases, registers and other sources

Example of flow diagram for new systematic reviews which included searches of databases, registers and other sources

Prisma flowchart diagram

 

Suggested Resources:

Flow diagrams can also be generated using a Shiny App available at https://www.eshackathon.org/software/PRISMA2020.html

For more information about citing and using PRISMA go to http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/CitingAndUsingPRISMA.aspx.