By Kanza Khan
Systematic review is a highly rigorous review of existing literature that addresses a clearly formulated question. It uses repeatable analytical methods to collect secondary data and analyse it. It has three types; Qualitative, Quantitative and Meta analysis. A Meta-analysis uses statistical methods to integrate estimates of effect from relevant studies that are independent but similar and summarize them. These are conducted to keep clinicians up to date with the latest clinical evidence. They address the benefits, harms and risks of healthcare behaviour and interventions. They also give summaries of previous research for funders wishing to support new research.
Steps to conducting a review and a meta analysis are summarised below.
- Select a journal you want your article to be published in. Look at the impact factor, indexing status and citescore metrics of the journal. Find the author’s guidelines. Make sure the journal accepts systematic review or meta analysis.
- Find a good and specific topic. For example management of diabetes in ICU patients. Topic should be in your field of interest.
- Search on PubMed.gov and record the number of articles. It is a free search engine for research articles.
- Review titles and discard irrelevant ones.
- Review abstracts of selected articles and discard irrelevant ones.
- Review full length articles of selected abstracts.
- These selected full length articles will help you write your research paper.
The main body of a systematic review contains a structured abstract. Abstract mentions the objective, inclusion and exclusion criteria, main outcomes and measures, results and conclusion. After the abstract, introduction is written. Introduction mentions the purpose and end goal of a research. The whole process and methodology is described in materials and method. Meta Analysis contains a statistical analysis addition to method section. After this, the entire research is summarized in discussion. The strength and weaknesses of the review are discussed and implications for current practice suggested. To conclude, mention limitations of research and suggestions for future researchers. After conclusion, add references. Softwares such as Zotero, Endnote, Refworks or Mendeley can be used for this purpose.
Some causes of rejection are submitting an article irrelevant to the journal or not following Authors guidelines and required format. Using inconsistent or wrong english along with punctuation errors. If a topic has been explores a lot in the past, it has a higher chance of rejection. Always avoid plagiarism when writing an article. It has some serious consequences and is highly unethical.