The systematic literature reviews service provides guidance and support to LSE researchers, students and staff conducting:
- systematic reviews
- scoping reviews
- rapid review
- mapping reviews
- other types of literature reviews
Our support can help you to produce higher quality reviews that are robust and transparent, and meet funder guidelines.
Workshops, advice and other support
We run regular workshops on conducting systematic reviews and other types of reviews. Training for individuals or groups includes:
- developing robust search strategies
- using relevant databases
- using reference management tools
- finding the full-text of published papers
You can:
Contact us for advice on:
- different types of review
- reporting standards and best practices
- which databases to use and how to use them effectively
- how to develop and improve on search strategies
How you can work with us
Provide as much notice as possible of your project, ideally as soon as you know you will be undertaking it, as we may not be able to support you immediately.
Be timely in follow up communications and keep us informed of any changes to your research or its timescales.
Different types of reviews
We can provide advice and guidance on the review types listed on this page. For more information about different types of reviews and to determine which is most relevant for your research, consult the following resources:
- Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: Exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36(3), 202-222.
- Yale University. Guide to different review types.
- Munn, Z., Stern, C., Aromataris, E., Lockwood, C., & Jordan, Z. (2018). What kind of systematic review should I conduct? A proposed typology and guidance for systematic reviewers in the medical and health sciences. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18(1), 5.
- Kastner, M., Antony, J., Soobiah, C., Straus, S., & Tricco, A. (2016). Conceptual recommendations for selecting the most appropriate knowledge synthesis method to answer research questions related to complex evidence. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 73, 43-49.
- Booth, A. et al. (2016). Guidance on choosing qualitative evidence synthesis methods for use in health technology assessments of complex interventions.
- Cooke, A., Smith, D., & Booth, A. (2012). Beyond PICO: The SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis. Qualitative Health Research, 22(10), 1435-1443.
Resources to help you with different types of reviews
These links and guides will help you learn more about conducting different systematic and literature reviews. Following these protocols and review standards can improve the quality of your review.
Protocols and review standards
- PRISMA - (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
- Institute of Medicine. (2011). Finding what works in health care : Standards for systematic reviews.
- Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. (2019).
- Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD). (2009). Systematic reviews: CRD's guidance for undertaking reviews in health care.
- Aromataris, E., & Munn, Z. (Eds). (2020). JBI Reviewer's Manual. Joanna Briggs Institute.
- Rapid-Reviews.info
- Peters, MD et al. (2015). Guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 13(3), 141-146.
- Armstrong, R., Hall, B., Doyle, J., & Waters, E. (2011). ‘Scoping the scope’ of a Cochrane review. Journal of Public Health, 33(1), 147-150.
- Cochrane Qualitative & Implementation Methods Group. Guidance on qualitative evidence syntheses.
- Wong, G., Greenhalgh, T., Westhorp, G., Buckingham, J., & Pawson, R. (2013). RAMESES publication standards: Realist syntheses. BMC Medicine,11(1), 21.
- The RAMESES Projects. Realist reviews resources.
Finding other reviews and protocols
Before starting work on a review, it's worth checking if a similar one is already being conducted. Check the different protocol registries to see what reviews are currently ongoing in your subject area. You can also search bibliographic databases for published protocols and completed reviews. Similarly, you may want to register your own protocol to help avoid others completing a review on your topic.
- PROSPERO - an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health-related outcome.
- Cochrane Library - collection of evidence based medicine databases which review the impact and effect of health care. It includes the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
- Campbell Collaboration - an international social science research network that produces high quality, open and policy-relevant evidence syntheses, plain language summaries and policy briefs.
- Epistemonikos - a collaborative, multilingual database of health evidence. It is the largest source of systematic reviews relevant for health-decision making, and a large source of other types of scientific evidence.
- Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). Systematic Review Register - A list of JBI reviews currently underway. The JBI views evidence-based healthcare as decision-making that considers the feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness and effectiveness of healthcare practices. The best available evidence, the context in which care is delivered, the individual patient and the professional judgement and expertise of the health professional inform this process.
Databases
- Medline - an authoritative bibliographic database containing citations and abstracts for biomedical and health journals used by health care professionals, nurses, clinicians and researchers engaged in clinical care, public health and health policy development.
- EMBASE - abstract and Indexing database covering over 8,500 published, peer-reviewed journal titles, 30 million articles back to 1947, all disciplines of medicine and biomedical science, and includes substantial coverage of Allied Health subjects
- CINAHL - robust collection of full text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 770 journals indexed in CINAHL
- Global Health – brings together the resources of two internationally renowned databases - the Public Health and Tropical Medicine (PHTM) database, previously produced by the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (BHTD), and the human health and diseases information extracted from CAB Abstracts.
- HMIC – brings together the bibliographic database of two UK health and social care management organizations: the Department of Health's Library and Information Services (DH-Data) and King's Fund Information and Library Service.
- Cochrane Library - collection of evidence based medicine databases which review the impact and effect of health care. It includes the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
- PsycINFO - focuses on the interdisciplinary aspects of the worldwide behavioural and social science research and literature.
- PsycARTICLES - recognised worldwide as a leading full text source for academic, research and practice literature in psychology and related disciplines.
- Econlit - the American Economic Association's electronic database and the world's foremost source of references to economic literature.
- Proquest Dissertations and Theses - world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day.
- Web of Science - provides access to a collection of databases which enable you to trace references to academic journal articles and conference papers.
- Scopus - largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.
Access a list of key interdisciplinary and subject databases on our Library Resources Guide.