Research Guides: Systematic Reviews: Finding and Appraising Existing Systematic Reviews

Finding Existing Systematic Reviews

Searching for existing systematic reviews on a topic related to your own research question can be a good place to start your systematic review process. These systematic reviews may provide a model for approaching your own review of the literature, including recommended search strategies and resources. Below are links to online libraries of systematic reviews and evidence documents for health and other areas of policy-making.

Existing Systematic Review Databases

Cochrane Library
Search here for published Cochrane systematic reviews and protocols in medicine and healthcare.
Joanna Briggs Library
Search here for systematic reviews published by the Joanna Briggs Institute, an international nonprofit organization that focuses on researching evidence-based healthcare.
PROSPERO
An international registry for prospective systematic reviews.
TRIP Database
A searchable clinical research evidence library--allows searching by PICO.
Systematic Reviews for Animals & Food (SYREAF)
Repository for review protocols and systematic reviews in any area related to food, food production, food safety, animal health, and animal welfare. and animal. SYREAF also provides information about carrying out systematic reviews.

Campbell Collaboration
Check here for published reviews and protocols by the Campbell Collaboration, which focuses on reviews outside of clinical medicine.
Health Evidence
Check here for systematic reviews on public health interventions.
Epistemonikos
An evidence library for decisions in health care and health policy.
3iE Database
International Initiative for Impact Evaluations is for policymakers and researchers who are looking for evidence on what works, what doesn’t, and why in development. Their evidence hub includes a systematic review repository.
The Community Guide
The Guide to Community Preventive Services is a free database of systematic reviews to help practitioners choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in their community.
EPPI-Centre
The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) conducts systematic reviews in the fields of Education, Health Promotion and Public Health, as well as social welfare and international development.

The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence
The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) is an open community of scientists and managers working towards a sustainable global environment and the conservation of biodiversity. They provide evidence syntheses concerning environmental policy and practice.
Library Catalog & Databases
You can search any scholarly database that published research in your field of interest through Utica College Library. Include "systematic review" as a search term to find systematic reviews in your discipline.

Appraising Systematic Reviews

Appraising Existing Systematic Reviews

Just because a review has been published as a "systematic review", it does not imply that the review was rigorous, reproducible or exhaustive. There are a number of criteria by which you can assess the quality of a systematic review. Below are the two most common tools used for this purpose.