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 (ScR)
• Systematic review (SR)
• Rapid review (RR)
• Umbrella review

The free online tool ‘Right Review’ is designed to provide guidance and supporting material when choosing any kind of knowledge synthesis.

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 rapid review

Rapid reviews (RR) are a quicker alternative to the traditional systematic review (SR) and are usually conducted in cases where decision makers require synthesized evidence in a time frame insufficient for a full SR and where limitations due to methodological shortcuts are acceptable.

Cochrane Definition

The Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group recommends the following definition (Garritty, Hamel, et al. (2024)):

A rapid review is a type of evidence synthesis that brings together and summarises information from different research studies to produce evidence for people such as the public, healthcare providers, researchers, policy makers, and funders in a systematic, resource efficient manner. This is done by speeding up the ways we plan, do, and/or share the results of conventional structured (systematic) reviews, by simplifying or omitting a variety of methods that should be clearly defined bythe authors.”

Methodology

There is a series of publications from the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group which provides methodological guidance in conducting rapid reviews:

• Assessing the appropriateness of conducting an RR (Garritty et al. (2025))
• Guidance on team considerations, study selection, data extraction and risk of bias assessment (Nussbaumer-Streit et al. (2023))
• Guidance on literature search (Klerings et al. (2023))
• Guidance on rapid quality evidence synthesis (Booth et al. (2024))
• Interim guidance for the reporting of RRs (Stevens et al. (2025))
• Guidance on assessing the certainty of evidence (Gartlehner et al. (2024))
• Considerations and recommendations for evidence synthesis in rapid reviews (King et al. (2024))
• Involving different stakeholders as knowledge users (Garritty, Tricco, et al. (2024))
• Guidance on the use of supportive software (Affengruber et al. (2024))
• Guidance on rapid scoping, mapping and evidence and gap maps (Campbell et al. (2025))

5.1.2 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)

Affengruber, Lisa, Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Candyce Hamel, Miriam Van der Maten, James Thomas, Chris Mavergames, Rene Spijker, and Gerald Gartlehner. 2024. “Rapid Review Methods Series: Guidance on the Use of Supportive Software.” BMJ Evid Based Med 29 (4): 264–71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112530.

Booth, Andrew, Isolde Sommer, Jane Noyes, Catherine Houghton, and Fiona Campbell. 2024. “Rapid reviews methods series: guidance on rapid qualitative evidence synthesis.” BMJ Evid Based Med 29 (3): 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112620.

Campbell, Fiona, Anthea Sutton, Danielle Pollock, Chantelle Garritty, Andrea C. Tricco, Lena Schmidt, and Hanan Khalil. 2025. “Rapid reviews methods series: guidance on rapid scoping, mapping and evidence and gap map (‘Big Picture Reviews’).” BMJ Evid Based Med 30 (4): 268–77. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112389.

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.

Garritty, Chantelle, Candyce Hamel, Marialena Trivella, Gerald Gartlehner, Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Declan Devane, Chris Kamel, Ursula Griebler, and Valerie J. King. 2024. “Updated recommendations for the Cochrane rapid review methods guidance for rapid reviews of effectiveness.” BMJ 384 (February): e076335. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-076335.

Garritty, Chantelle, Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Candyce Hamel, and Declan Devane. 2025. “Rapid reviews methods series: assessing the appropriateness of conducting a rapid review.” Edited by Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group, Chantelle Garritty, Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Candyce Hamel, and Declan Devane. BMJ Evid Based Med 30 (1): 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112722.

Garritty, Chantelle, Andrea C. Tricco, Maureen Smith, Danielle Pollock, Chris Kamel, and Valerie J. King. 2024. “Rapid Reviews Methods Series: Involving patient and public partners, healthcare providers and policymakers as knowledge users.” BMJ Evid Based Med 29 (1): 55–61. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2022-112070.

Gartlehner, Gerald, Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Declan Devane, Leila Kahwati, Meera Viswanathan, Valerie J. King, Amir Qaseem, Elie Akl, and Holger J. Schuenemann. 2024. “Rapid Reviews Methods Series: Guidance on Assessing the Certainty of Evidence.” BMJ Evid Based Med 29 (1): 50–54. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2022-112111.

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

King, Valerie J., Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Elizabeth Shaw, Declan Devane, Leila Kahwati, Meera Viswanathan, and Gerald Gartlehner. 2024. “Rapid Reviews Methods Series: Considerations and Recommendations for Evidence Synthesis in Rapid Reviews.” BMJ Evid Based Med 29 (6): 419–22. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112617.

Klerings, Irma, Shannon Robalino, Andrew Booth, Camila Micaela Escobar-Liquitay, Isolde Sommer, Gerald Gartlehner, Declan Devane, and Siw Waffenschmidt. 2023. “Rapid Reviews Methods Series: Guidance on Literature Search.” BMJ Evid Based Med. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2022-112079.

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.

Nussbaumer-Streit, Barbara, Isolde Sommer, Candyce Hamel, Declan Devane, Anna Noel-Storr, Livia Puljak, Marialena Trivella, and Gerald Gartlehner. 2023. “Rapid Reviews Methods Series: Guidance on Team Considerations, Study Selection, Data Extraction and Risk of Bias Assessment.” BMJ Evid Based Med 28 (6): 418–23. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2022-112185.

Stevens, Adrienne, Mona Hersi, Chantelle Garritty, Lisa Hartling, Beverley J. Shea, Lesley A. Stewart, Vivian Andrea Welch, and Andrea C. Tricco. 2025. “Rapid Review Method Series: Interim Guidance for the Reporting of Rapid Reviews.” BMJ Evid Based Med 30 (2): 118–23. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2024-112899.

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.