5  Publication Types

5.1 Reviews

There are several types of reviews which differ in scope, purpose, target audience and amount of work involved.(Sutton et al. (2019), Munn, Stern, et al. (2018), Munn, Peters, et al. (2018)) Among them the most prominent types are:

• Narrative / traditional review
• Scoping review
• Systematic review
• Rapid review
• Umbrella review

Figure 5.1 shows a decision tree to help find the right kind of review.

Figure 5.1: What Type of Review is Right for you? - adopted from Cornell University Library (2019)

5.1.1 systematic review

A systematic review (SR) is a comprehensive review of the best available evidence (i.e. all relevant research results) pertaining to a certain topic or research question. SRs are usually conducted by research groups over the time of several months. The purpose of SRs is to inform evidence-based decision making.

SRs are regarded as the gold standard in evidence synthesis due to the strict and rigorous methodology that should be followed by the SR project team.

In many cases a so-called meta-analysis is also performed, which quantifies the results of the systematic review. (See Murad et al. (2014), Nagendrababu et al. (2020), Mulrow (1994))

Recommended reading

• Doing a Systematic Review by Cherry, Dickson, and Boland (2024)
  
• Systematic Reviews in Health Research by Egger, Higgins, and Smith (2022)
  
• An Introduction to Systematic Reviews by Gough, Oliver, and Thomas (2017)

Cherry, M. Gemma, Rumona Dickson, and Angela Boland, eds. 2024. Doing a Systematic Review - A Student’s Guide. 3rd ed. London: Sage. https://swisscovery.slsp.ch/permalink/41SLSP_UBE/17e6d97/alma99117483595305511.

Cornell University Library. 2019. “What Type of Review is Right for You?” Online. https://guides.library.cornell.edu/evidence-synthesis/service.

Egger, Matthias, Julian P. T. Higgins, and George Davey Smith, eds. 2022. Systematic Reviews in Health Research: Meta-Analysis in Context. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119099369.

Gough, David, Sandy Oliver, and James Thomas. 2017. An Introduction to Systematic Reviews. Second. London: SAGE Publications.

Mulrow, Cynthia D. 1994. “Rationale For Systematic Reviews.” BMJ 309 (6954): 597–99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29724645.

Munn, Z., M. D. J. Peters, C. Stern, C. Tufanaru, A. McArthur, and E. Aromataris. 2018. “Systematic Review or Scoping Review? Guidance for Authors When Choosing Between a Systematic or Scoping Review Approach.” Journal Article. BMC Med Res Methodol 18 (1): 143. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x.

Munn, Z., C. Stern, E. Aromataris, C. Lockwood, and Z. Jordan. 2018. “What kind of systematic review should I conduct? A proposed typology and guidance for systematic reviewers in the medical and health sciences.” Journal Article. BMC Med Res Methodol 18 (1): 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-017-0468-4.

Murad, Mohammad Hassan, Victor M. Montori, John P. A. Ioannidis, Roman Jaeschke, P. J. Devereaux, Kameshwar Prasad, Ignacio Neumann, et al. 2014. “How to Read a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis and Apply the Results to Patient Care: Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature.” JAMA 312 (2): 171–79. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2014.5559.

Nagendrababu, V., P. Dilokthornsakul, P. Jinatongthai, S. K. Veettil, S. J. Pulikkotil, H. F. Duncan, and P. M. H. Dummer. 2020. “Glossary for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.” Int Endod J 53 (2): 232–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/iej.13217.

Sutton, A., M. Clowes, L. Preston, and A. Booth. 2019. “Meeting the Review Family: Exploring Review Types and Associated Information Retrieval Requirements.” Journal Article. Health Info Libr J 36 (3): 202–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276.