Literature reviews: Systematic Reviews

"A review that uses explicit, systematic methods to collate and synthesise findings of studies that address a clearly formulated question"

Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, et al, eds. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions: Version 6.0. Cochrane, 2019. Available from https://training.cochrane.org/handbook.

"A method of analysis based on pooled data from as many sources as possible, preferably, but not necessarily, using exactly comparable research studies. In this respect, a systematic review may not be quite the same as a meta-analysis, which relies on comparable studies. The aim is to make maximum use of the best available evidence from all available sources in evidence-based decision making."

“Systematic Review.” A Dictionary of Public Health, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2018.

Example 1

Cuijpers, P., Miguel, C., Ciharova, M., Kumar, M., Brander, L., Kumar, P., & Karyotaki, E. (2023). Impact of climate events, pollution, and green spaces on mental health: an umbrella review of meta-analyses. Psychological Medicine, 53(3), 638–653. ​

Example 2

Oksanen, A., Cvetkovic, A., Akin, N., Latikka, R., Bergdahl, J., Chen, Y., & Savela, N. (2023). Artificial intelligence in fine arts: A systematic review of empirical research. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 1(2), 100004-. 

Lav dit eget flowchart: http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/FlowDiagram

Try Covidence: https://app.covidence.org/signup/trial/new

From January 1st 2024: Covidence is a cloud-based review platform that helps you import up to 100,000 references, sort your references, attach PDFs and allows integration with reference managers. Covidence supports the screening process, and allows screening on your mobile. Further, you can automatically populate your risk of bias tables by highlighting and commenting on text directly in your PDF and export a single, machine-readable file that easily integrates into all the common statistics packages,

Researchers affiliated Roskilde University have access to Covidence.

1. Contact RUB Literature Review Service for full access to Covidence. Please state your department, title and RUC e-mail.
2. You will recieve an invitation from Covidence. Accepting the invitation gives you full access.
3. Choose "Roskilde University" when you create your review(s).

Limited amount of reviews per year

We only have access to a limited amount of reviews per year. If you just want to try out the software sign up for a free trial, where anyone can create up to one review with maximum 500 references. You can also try out the different functionalities in the Covidence sample project.

Not a researcher?: As an alternative to Covidence you can also use Rayyan software, which allows you up to 3 active reviews and most functionalities in their free basic version.