An Introduction to Systematic Reviews

"An excellent introduction to systematic review delivered in an accessible style and logical format. This new edition encourages thoughtful consideration of key methodological concepts in the generation and conduct of systematic reviews and embraces recent advances in review synthesis methods. Useful to researchers and students at all levels."


The Psychologist "[This] book is written in a very accessible style, supported with examples of existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses at all stages of synthesis....The step-by-step structure and clear labelling of this book make it the ideal systematic review resource for students and researchers at all levels."

David Gough is a Professor of Evidence Informed Policy and Practice, and Director of the EPPI-Centre, University College London. His early research focused on child protection services. For the last 20 years, he has concentrated on methods of research synthesis including a DfE centre on evidence informed education, a node of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, and a methods unit for NICE. His research on research use include the European Commission EIPPEE network, the Science of Using Science review for the Wellcome Trust, the experimental evaluation of the RISE project to encourage evidence use in schools, a study of the UK what works centres for ESRC, and a study of evidence standards in web evidence portals for the Centre for Homelessness Impact. He is a coinvestigator for DfIDs CEDIL project on developing evaluation methodology in international development. He was the comanaging editor of the journal Evidence and Policy from 2009 to 2017.

Sandy Oliver is Professor of Public Policy at UCL Institute of Education and Deputy Director of SSRU and its EPPI-Centre. For twenty five years her interests have focused on the interaction between researchers and people making decisions in their professional and personal lives. With this in mind she has been developing methods to collate knowledge from whole bodies of research systematic reviews not just single studies. Most recently this has been in the area of international development where she has conducted systematic reviews and built up a programme of support for research teams conducting reviews elsewhere. She works with DFID and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at WHO to build capacity in systematic reviewing in developing countries.

James Thomas is a Professor in Social Policy, Assistant Director of SSRU and Associate Director of the EPPI-Centre He directs the EPPI-Centre's Reviews Facility for the Department of Health, England, and undertakes systematic reviews across a range of policy areas. He has specialized in developing methods for research synthesis, in particular for qualitative and mixed methods reviews and in using emerging information technologies in research. He leads a module on synthesis and critical appraisal on the EPPI-Centre's MSc in Evidence for Public Policy and Practice and development on the Centre's in-house reviewing software, EPPI-Reviewer.

Introducing systematic reviews - David Gough, Sandy Oliver and James Thomas Stakeholder perspectives and participation in reviews - Rebecca Rees and Sandy Oliver Commonality and diversity in reviews - David Gough and James Thomas Getting started with a review - Sandy Oliver, Kelly Dickson, Mukdarut Bangpan, and Mark Newman Finding relevant studies - Ginny Brunton, Claire Stansfield and Jenny Caird Describing and analysing studies - Katy Sutcliffe, Sandy Oliver and Michelle Richardson Review management through information technology - Jeff Brunton, James Thomas, and Sergio Graziosi Synthesis Part I: methodological foundations and systematic narrative methods - James Thomas, Alison O'Mara-Eves, Angela Harden, and Mark Newman Synthesis Part II: statistical methods - James Thomas, Alison O'Mara-Eves, Dylan Kneale and Ian Shemilt Quality and relevance appraisal - Kristin Liabo, David Gough and Angela Harden Using research findings - David Gough, Ruth Stewart and Janice Tripney