As of July 2017, about one third of the HPV vaccine studies had not been published and study results were not posted for about half of the completed studies on ClinicalTrials.gov [ 36 ]. Likewise, traditional literature reviews in international development research often focus exclusively on results of other studies, without considering study design, data and analytical methods used. Table 1 shows the number of studies included in the different stages of our eight systematic reviews. Concrete examples will be provided from the systematic review on cash transfers and employment creation (Hagen-Zanker et al. These form the basis of search strings that are used in the literature search. Design Systematic overview of reviews. The process of conducting systematic reviews, especially for new authors, will prove to be a worthwhile endeavour. For example, because international development is a multi-disciplinary field in nature, it may be much harder to assess evidence compared to the fields in which systematic reviews were pioneered. She also serves as a peer reviewer for various biomedical journals. This is particularly the case if systematic reviews are registered with international research networks, as discussed earlier. Reviews published literature on the social and health benefits of rivers, lakes and coastal waters – referred to collectively as ‘Blue Space’. Systematic literature searching is recognised as a critical component of the systematic review process. A thorough search strategy should involve multiple databases, registries, sources of grey literature (https://onlinelibrary.london.ac.uk/resources/databases/opengrey)13, conference proceedings and abstracts. In order to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews in biomedical sciences, checklists like the AMSTAR – “A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews”14 (https://amstar.ca) can be utilized. As the situation currently stands, the kinds of ‘hierarchies of evidence’ adopted and promoted by systematic reviews not only discount non-positivist science, effectively pushing research that does not set out to prove/disprove hypotheses into a dark corner, but also lean towards studies that investigate measurable outcomes. In other words, the question of why things work is just as policy relevant as whether or not they do in the first place (Gough et al. For most of our systematic reviews, even at the full-text screening stage, hundreds of articles still had to be screened. Peer review of the protocol and process ensures a further reduction of researcher bias. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Outside of medical sciences, protocols can be uploaded to Open Science Framework (https://osf.io). Systematic reviews are a new tool in international development research and have the potential to enhance and promote evidence-informed policymaking, particularly in areas with a strong and well-developed evidence base. To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy. The range and inconsistency of methodological approaches adopted make it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions. It may also be necessary to give the definitions, and source of the definition, used for particular concepts in the research question (e.g. Systematic reviews were pioneered in the natural sciences where the predominant methodologies are quantitative. The availability of different cannabis-based products can make the side effects of exposure unpredictable. Protocols provide a complete detailed description of the process by which the review will be conducted. It draws on the authors' shared experience of conducting eight systematic reviews 1 since 2010 on the respective impacts of, microfinance programmes (Duvendack et al. Section 4 discusses the specific practical challenges the authors faced before Section 5 raises some more fundamental concerns regarding the use of systematic review in international development. But there is also a more fundamental concern: the attributes that get research published in a peer-reviewed development journal are very different to those required for inclusion in a systematic review. (2012). Registering the protocol reduces research bias, duplication of effort, resource waste, and provides greater transparency12. Outcomes are ultimately shaped by programme design and delivery, as well as by context (see Pawson and Tilley (1997) on context–mechanism–outcome configurations), and many systematic reviews do not help us understand these dimensions. The following is a systematic approach guide that can help achieve the goal of a company. This means that the same studies are frequently cited and this introduces a persistent bias to literature reviews. Each Cochrane Review addresses a clearly formulated question; for example: Can antibiotics help in alleviating the symptoms of a sore throat? Lastly, they can be used to identify questions for which the available evidence provide clear answers and thus for which further research is not necessary18. These concerns will now be discussed in more detail. 2008). These will be discussed next. 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