Skip to Main Content

Systematic Reviews: Evaluating a Systematic Review

Evaluating Systematic Reviews

There is a wide variety in the quality of published systematic reviews. Writers should strive to publish the highest quality possible in order to provide the best medical evidence.There are many tools that people use to evaluate systematic reviews. Most of them are checklists with 10-20 questions.Journal publishers and peer-reviewers often use these tools to evaluate your systematic review before they accept your manuscript for publication so it's a good idea to be familiar with what the evaluation criteria are. 

Tools to Evaluate Systematic Reviews

PRISMA Checklist: a list of 27 items that should be included in all systematic reviews. it was not originally designed to be an appraisal tool but peer reviewers often use it as one.

AMSTAR2: 16 questions evaluating systematic reviews on the effectiveness of interventions.

CASP Systematic Review Checklist: 10 questions to help you evaluate systematic reviews

JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Systematic Reviews and Research Synthesesan 11-item checklist evaluating systematic reviews in any medical field but especially in nursing and allied health. 

ROBISevaluates systematic reviews on relevance, the review process, and risk of bias. 

BMJ Best Practice Appraising Systematic Reviews: a very short checklist.

PRESS Checklist: lists items to check to make sure your search strings have no errors.