Abstract
BackgroundA standard or consensus definition of a systematic review does not exist. Therefore, if there is no definition about a systematic review in secondary studies that analyse them or the definition is too broad, inappropriate studies might be included in such evidence synthesis. The aim of this study was to analyse the definition of a systematic review (SR) in health care literature, elements of the definitions that are used and to propose a starting point for an explicit and non-ambiguous SR definition.MethodsWe included overviews of systematic reviews (OSRs), meta-epidemiological studies and epidemiology textbooks. We extracted the definitions of SRs, as well as the inclusion and exclusion criteria that could indicate which definition of a SR the authors used. We extracted individual elements of SR definitions, categorised and quantified them.ResultsAmong the 535 analysed sources of information, 188 (35%) provided a definition of a SR. The most commonly used reference points for the definitions of SRs were Cochrane and the PRISMA statement. We found 188 different elements of SR definitions and divided them into 14 categories. The highest number of SR definition elements was found in categories related to searching (N = 51), analysis/synthesis (N = 23), overall methods (N = 22), quality/bias/appraisal/validity (N = 22) and aim/question (N = 13). The same five categories were also the most commonly used combination of categories in the SR definitions.ConclusionCurrently used definitions of SRs are vague and ambiguous, often using terms such as clear, explicit and systematic, without further elaboration. In this manuscript we propose a more specific definition of a systematic review, with the ultimate aim of motivating the research community to establish a clear and unambiguous definition of this type of research.
Highlights
A standard or consensus definition of a systematic review does not exist
If there is no definition about a systematic review in secondary studies that analyse them or the definition is too broad, inappropriate studies might be included in such evidence synthesis
We did not use an a priori defined list of those elements; instead, we presented elements that we found in the analysed sources of information and we kept expanding the list of elements as we found new variations of the elements of the systematic review (SR) definition
Summary
A standard or consensus definition of a systematic review does not exist. if there is no definition about a systematic review in secondary studies that analyse them or the definition is too broad, inappropriate studies might be included in such evidence synthesis. In 1990, the term evidence-based medicine (EBM) was coined [1]. It was hailed as a new approach for teaching and practising clinical medicine [2], incorporating “the best available external clinical evidence from a systematic search” [3]. When it comes to the best available evidence about treatment, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and a systematic review (SR)/meta-analysis are considered the “gold standard” [1]. A search conducted in October 2019 showed that more than 15,000 studies published in 2018 were marked with a systematic review tag in PubMed
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