A systematic review should address a gap in the current literature. To avoid duplication, do a search to see if a systematic review has already been published or if there's one in progress related to your topic. The following resources should be searched to find other systematic revews.
One of the first steps of the systematic review process is to develop your research question. The topic should be focused and specific. An example of a well-formulated systematic review question is "Does working in a carpentry factory lead to increased incidence of asthma or upper respiratory infections?"*
You can use the PICO framework to help construct your research question.
P Population/Problem
I Intervention/Exposure
C Comparison
O Outcome
*Schiavo JH, Foster MJ. Planning the review, part 1. In: Foster MJ, Jewell St, eds. Assembling the Peices of a Systematic Review: A Guide for Librarians. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield; 2017: 31-47.
A written protocol for your systematic review is necessary to help plan the review and provide a framework. It can also help to provide more transparency for your systematic review by allowing researchers to see what your initial plan was before the systematic review was published.
Once the protocol is written, you should submit it to a database such as PROSPERO to register your protocol. Protocols will include the research question, the question broken down into PICO format, inclusion and exclusion criteria, preliminary search strategy (search query or keywords for the literature search), how studies will be assessed, citation management plans, etc.
For example protocols, search PROSPERO.
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