Guidelines for Systematic Reviews/Evidence-Based Literature Reviews
Title: State Focused Clinical Question
Objectives of the Evidence-Based Literature Review
- What are the objectives of the focused question relative to the overall evidence-based literature review on this topic?
- What specifically do we want to find out and report on about this question relative to the topic?
Statement of Problem (aka Study Justification)
- What is the problem addressed by the focused question/topic?
- What significance does addressing this problem have for the following items?
Items marked with * must be addressed; include any others that apply.
- the clinical and community-based practice of OT*
- the education and training of OT students*
- refinement, revision, or advancement of knowledge, theory or research*
- program development
- societal needs
- health care delivery and health policy
- coverage payment for occupational therapy services at local, state, and national levels
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Background Literature
Keeping in mind the expectations and standards of a peer reviewed scholarly journal, critically synthesize the background information and literature for the problem addressed. What is currently known about the problem and what is not yet known? Provide relevant definitions, descriptions of the intervention and approach, as needed. Talk about how this evidence-based review will contribute to our understanding or resolution of the problem addressed.
Methods for Conducting the Evidence-Based Review
In this section, describe the following:
- Search strategy, including inclusion and exclusion criteria and screening procedures
- Procedures for identification and collection of articles
- Approach to appraisal of articles to be included in the review
- Quality control/peer review process
Results
This section has two parts: The first part is the Evidence Table—a snapshot description of each study’s characteristics and a critical appraisal of study findings and limitations. The Evidence Table and Guidelines for completing an Evidence Table are attached.
The second part is a narrative synthesis of findings from all studies viewed as a group from an evidence-based perspective. This is the major aspect of your results because this section provides the reader with a synthesis of the findings written in scholarly, narrative prose. In other words, keep in mind that readers will typically find this scholarly analysis to be the critical component of the evidence-based literature review. It may be helpful for the writer as well as the reader, to group the results of the review according to themes or categories in order to analyze and summarize the findings.
To synthesize the articles and create the results:
- The goal of this step is to systematically reach a synthesis of the findings of the literature review from an evidence-based perspective. This section is what will be written for the results section to complement the Evidence Table.
- Synthesize by answering the question “What do we know, from an evidence-based perspective, about specific dimensions of the focused question? The synthesis must reflect the strength of the findings in relation to the types of study design (Level) and the methodological weaknesses present (biases and study limitations). While there can be study limitations at all levels, please keep in mind that results from a Level I, II, or III study will provide stronger evidence than Levels IV or V. The strongest evidence (I, II, and III) should be presented first, followed by weaker evidence (IV and V). In the situations where there is adequate evidence from Levels I, II, or III, then Levels IV and V may not need to be included. If themes are used to summarize the findings, results should be reported by Levels within these categories.
Discussion and Implications for Practice, Education and Research
This section is an opportunity for reviewers to interpret the evidence synthesis (results of the review) for practice and to develop implications for practice, education, or future research.
End this section of the article with a response to these questions:
- Do the findings warrant further research? IF YES, what kind of questions and directions?
- What principles or fundamental conclusions can be applied to practice, education and research from the review?