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.
Below are some Frequently Asked Questions about the JBI Systematic Review Checklist that have been asked by students.
| Frequently Asked Question | Response |
| Question 1 on the JBI 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, text words, subject headings, controlled vocabulary, thesaurus, MeSH, etc.) that were used to retrieve evidence in research databases. 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. |
For more help: Each JBI Checklist provides detailed guidance on what to look for to answer each question on the checklist. These explanatory notes begin on page four of each Checklist. Please review these carefully as you conduct critical appraisal using JBI tools.
Baird, R. (2018). Systematic reviews and meta-analytic techniques. Seminars in Pediatric Surgery, 27(6), 338-344. doi:10.1053/j.sempedsurg.2018.10.009
Bigby, M., & Williams, H. (2003). Appraising systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Archives of Dermatology, 139(6), 795-798. doi:10.1001/archderm.139.6.795
Davies, A. (2019). Carrying out systematic literature reviews: An introduction. British Journal of Nursing, 28(15), 1008-1014. doi:10.12968/bjon.2019.28.15.1008
Lin, L., & Chu, H. (2018). Quantifying publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics, 74(3), 785-794. doi:10.1111/biom.12817
Lockwood, C., & Oh, E. G. (2017). Systematic reviews: Guidelines, tools and checklists for authors. Nursing and Health Sciences, 19(3), 273-277. doi:10.1111/nhs.12353
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. doi:10.1186/s12874-017-0468-4