Research Guides: Systematic reviews, scoping reviews and other evidence syntheses: Before you start

Time and resources

Evidence synthesis reviews require a significant amount of time and resources

Expect a systematic review project to last from 6 months to 2 years (Khangura et al., 2012)
PredicTER, a decision-support tool, can help you estimate time requirements
This table provides average timelines for each element in a scoping or systematic review

Evidence synthesis reviews should only be done if no existing review addresses your research question.

Check to ensure no protocols (statements of planned reviews) or published reviews on your topic already exist:

PROSPERO -- International prospective register of systematic reviews where there is a health-related outcome
OSF Registries -- international, interdisciplinary registry for all forms of research including systematic reviews
Figshare -- repository of research outputs, including protocols
JBI Systematic Review Register -- register of JBI-affiliated systematic reviews
Campbell Collaboration -- publishes systematic review protocols with a social, economic, crime and education focus.
SYREAF -- repository for food, food production, food safety, animal health and animal welfare protocols

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews -- Includes the full text of the regularly updated systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare prepared by the Cochrane Collaboration.
Campbell Collaboration -- International network which publishes high-quality systematic reviews of social and economic interventions around the world.
EPPI-Centre -- Systematic reviews and developing review methods in social science and public policy.
What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) -- US Dept of Education's Institute of Education Sciences compilation of systematic reviews to guide practice.
International Database of Education Systematic Reviews -- Includes published systematic reviews in the field of education.
Environmental Evidence Library of Evidence Synthesis -- Contains all systematic reviews and systematic maps that have been approved by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE).
Epistemonikos -- world’s largest multilingual repository of healthcare evidence with over 450,000 systematic reviews

Search keywords for your review topic and review type in Omni e.g. body image AND scoping review
Search keywords for your topic in a subject database and use a publication type filter (e.g. systematic review, scoping review, etc)

Reference: Systematic Reviews by Lydia Thorne at University of Ontario Institute of Technology