Research

A range of support is available. These are the first steps to work through.

• Do you need a systematic search or are you just looking for some references on a topic? If you just need some references and you do not need the process to be documented, then request a general literature search.
• If you are studying at university and a requirement of your course is to complete a search strategy yourself, your university librarians should be able to assist.  Limited guidance will be provided by this library.
• More assistance is available if your research is endorsed and supported by the health service.

Need more than that?

• Formulate your initial question - it's not all PICO - there are many question frameworks described in a paper on formulating questions that may work better if you have questions on topics other than interventions - BeHEMoTH, CHIPS, CoCoPop, ECLIPSE, SPICE, SPIDER and more
• Request a scoping search - either a formalised, PRISMA for Scoping Reviews level search that requires extensive documentation, or a more general review of the literature to get a picture of the volume and scope of the literature on a topic.
• Reformulate your question using the question framework chosen 
• Decide upon the type of study you want to do (taking into consideration the reporting requirements for different study designs)
• Consider the level of search support and documentation you will require for your study design.

How systematic is your review?  This is an important question to consider upfront.

• The most rigorous design is the systematic review which may use meta-analysis.  They are typically done by a review group (not an individual), they are very time consuming and typically take many months to complete.  Extensive documentation is required in line with reporting guidelines for the review type (PRISMA-S: an extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews - January 2021). 
• Other variants of review may be better suited to some questions or practical realities and may have simplified documentation requirements and fewer steps in the review process (examples:  a narrative review,   a systematic narrative review,  a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis,  a rapid review,  a systematic review of systematic literature reviews,  a scoping review,  a state of the art review,  an umbrella review).

A selection of links to guidance or quality measures for review types.

• Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (equator network) - a compendium of reporting guidelines
• Cochrane Handbook for Diagnostic Test Accuracy
• Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group offers evidence-informed guidance to conduct rapid reviews
• PRISMA Extensions for other types or aspects of systematic reviews
• SANRA—a scale for the quality assessment of narrative review articles