Systematic reviews are "rigorous and systematic syntheses of research findings about a clinical problem" (Schmidt & Brown, 2019, p. 101).
Essentially, a systematic review is a study of other studies on the same topic or addressing the same research question.
JBI Level of Evidence
Depending on the type of systematic review, its Level of Evidence may vary. Please refer to the JBI Levels of Evidence (LOE) Information in your Blackboard course site (under Module 7) or see Dr. Reuille's LOE document below:
Each JBI Checklist provides expert tips and guidance on what to look for to answer each question. These tips begin on page 4.
Below are some additional Frequently Asked Questions about the Systematic Review Checklist that have been asked by students in previous semesters.
| Frequently Asked Question | Response |
| Question 1 on the Checklist asks whether the review question is explicitly stated. My article does not have a review question. What should I do? | While many systematic reviews will phrase their topic in the form of a question (oftentimes utilziing the PICOT format), others may phrase their topic in the form of a research purpose, aim or statement. Check your article to see if the authors clearly and explicitly state their research purpose/aim/statement instead. |
| For Questions 3 and 4, how is the search strategy different from the sources and resources that were used to locate studies in the review? |
In Question 3, the search strategy refers to the search terms (keywords, subject headings, etc.) that were used to retrieve evidence for the systematic review. In Question 4, the sources and resources include the databases that were searched to retrieve evidence using the above search strategy addressed in Question 3. |