Rapid systematic reviews for synthesizing research on built environment

Abstract

The built environment research expands rapidly making it challenging to synthesize the evidence for informing environmental policies within narrow timeframes. Rapid systematic reviews (rapid reviews) are a practical and viable alternative to comprehensive (full) systematic reviews of research evidence across disciplines. While systematic reviews are now widespread in published academic literature, rapid reviews are still rare. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to familiarise environmental researchers with rapid reviews, clarify misunderstandings, and to improve the use and visibility of rapid reviews in this field. This work outlines the main principles of performing robust and transparent rapid reviews, along with examples of eight such reviews on different topics related to sustainable built environment research. It also provides practical and tested recommendations on the ways to expedite systematic review process while minimising bias and maximising transparency. When conducted according to the best practice, rapid reviews can be of similar quality as many published systematic reviews.