Life & Academia

Reviews

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Systematic review and meta-analysis: the basics explained, quick and easy

New postgraduate students and early career researchers looking for the perfect study design for their research question often ask, “what is a systematic review?”. This blog post explains what a systematic review is and the different types of systematic reviews. It will also ensure that the concept of a meta-analysis is no longer a foreign one.

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Narrative vs systematic vs scoping review: What’s the difference?

I often get asked what the difference between a narrative review and a systematic review is, or what the difference between a narrative review and a scoping review is. This is also something I wondered about when I was new to the world of research.


Let’s first look at what a systematic review and scoping review are. A systematic review is done to identify research studies published on a certain topic, with the primary aim to recommend best practice on a certain topic and inform policy. This i…

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Systematic vs scoping review: Which is right for your research question?

After many hours of thinking, reading up, jotting down, walking about, you have your research question formulated. You know that it's a review that you need to do to get your research question answered, in other words, a study where you gather existing research and summarise all of it into one study. You are uncertain whether it is a scoping review or a systematic review that needs to be done.

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Your Systematic Review Search Strategy

The search strategy can get one down when doing a systematic, scoping or any other type of review. This series of videos will help you organise your keywords and apply the essential principles to a search done in Medline via Pubmed. To explain the importance of keeping track of the number of studies you find, I also give you a glimpse into the PRISMA 2020 flow diagram.

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