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Indiana University School of Medicine

Ruth Lilly Medical Library

Systematic Reviews and other Evidence Syntheses

How to use this Guide

This guide is designed to be used by students, staff, and faculty who are new to evidence synthesis.

What is your timeframe?

Timeline of systematic review process, which can total over 12 months

Image CC-BY Mirian Ramirez. Adapted from image designed by Jessica Kaufman, Cochrane Consumers & Communication Review Group, Centre for Health Communication & Participation, La Trobe University, 2011.

Build your team

A high end publishable review needs several different types of team members to succeed. 

  • at least 3 reviewers to screen articles, extract data, and assess quality of articles
  • a methodologist to assist with assessing risk of bias of qualifying articles (e.g. GRADE methodology)
  • a librarian to conduct an exhaustive and reproducible search
  • a biostatistician if you think you will perform a meta-analysis (pooled results are homogenous)

Defining Authors

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
  • Final approval of the version to be published
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Guide Attribution

This guide is copied and adapted with permission from the