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EuroThesis

Data & analysis

Systematic and scoping reviews

A systematic review is a method, not a longer literature review. It stands or falls on whether another researcher could repeat your search and arrive at the same included studies.

Suited to

  • Health, nursing and medical dissertations requiring PRISMA reporting
  • Evidence-based practice modules and portfolios
  • Scoping reviews mapping an emerging field
  • Management and social science reviews using structured methods
Quote for this service

01In practice

How this actually works

We build the review from a protocol: research question in PICO, PEO or an equivalent framework, databases, search strings per database, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the screening process, all fixed before screening begins.

Screening is documented at every stage so the PRISMA flow diagram reports real numbers — records identified, duplicates removed, titles and abstracts screened, full texts assessed, studies included, with reasons for exclusion.

Quality appraisal uses the instrument appropriate to your field, and synthesis is narrative or meta-analytic depending on whether the included studies are homogeneous enough to pool.

02Scope

What is delivered

Written down so there is nothing to discover later.

You receive

  • A written protocol with question framework and eligibility criteria
  • Full search strategy reproduced for each database searched
  • Screening log with exclusion reasons at full-text stage
  • A PRISMA flow diagram populated with your actual figures
  • Data extraction table across included studies
  • Quality or risk-of-bias appraisal using a recognised instrument
  • Narrative synthesis, or meta-analysis with forest plots where pooling is justified

Not included

  • We do not report a review as systematic when the search was not systematic
  • We do not pool studies that are too heterogeneous to pool

03Process

From brief to delivery

  1. Protocol

    Question, frameworks, databases and criteria agreed and written down before any screening happens.

  2. Search and deduplication

    Searches run per database with the strings recorded, then deduplicated with counts retained for PRISMA.

  3. Screening and appraisal

    Title and abstract screening, then full-text assessment against criteria, with quality appraisal of included studies.

  4. Extraction and synthesis

    Structured extraction into a comparison table, then narrative synthesis or meta-analysis as the evidence allows.

04Questions

About systematic reviews

More general questions about how we work are answered on the FAQ page.

What is the difference between a systematic and a scoping review?
A systematic review answers a narrow, specific question and appraises the quality of what it includes. A scoping review maps what evidence exists on a broader topic, typically without quality appraisal, and is the right choice when the field is too new or too scattered for a narrow question.
Do you carry out meta-analysis?
Where it is justified. Pooling requires studies measuring comparable outcomes in comparable populations. If heterogeneity is too high we will tell you and produce a narrative synthesis instead, which is the methodologically correct answer even though it is the less impressive-sounding one.
How long does a systematic review take?
Longer than students expect. Search, screening and extraction across several databases is substantial work — plan in weeks rather than days, particularly if two-reviewer screening is required by your department.

05Related

Often needed alongside this

Literature reviews

A synthesised argument built from sources you can retrieve and defend, not a summary list.

Statistical analysis

SPSS, R, Stata and Python — with output explained well enough to defend.

Methodology

A design you can actually execute, justified well enough to survive a viva.

Journal publication

Journal targeting, manuscript preparation and reviewer responses that address the review.

Start here

Get a quote for systematic reviews

Send the assessment criteria and your department’s guidance with the brief. Those decide the shape of the work more than the topic does. We reply within a few hours on working days.

What to have ready

  • The assessment criteria or handbook
  • Your deadline and word count
  • Anything already written or approved

Not sure which service you need? Describe the project and we will tell you — including when the cheaper one is enough.

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