Principles of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

In this chapter, we summarize the key principles involved in designing and conducting a rigorous systematic reviewSystematic reviews focused on an intervention question. We provide key definitions on what systematic reviewsSystematic reviews and meta-analysis are and how they differ from other types of reviews. We cover the principles for designing a good systematic reviewSystematic reviews question, research team, designing and conducting literature searches, screeningScreening and selecting studies, extracting data, assessing the risk of bias of the included studies, conducting qualitative and quantitative syntheses, and appraising the certainty of the body of evidence. Finally, we describe the best tools for reporting a systematic reviewSystematic reviews and meta-analysis and for assessing its quality.