Systematic reviews appraise and synthesize primary research papers on a defined and focused research question.
The first step in undertaking a systematic review is to develop a focused question. It is advisable to check that a recent review has not already been published on your question.
Systematic reviews can address many types of question such as; Exploration/Etiology, Prediction/Prognosis, Intervention/Therapy or Diagnosis questions.
Frameworks have been developed to assist in formulating questions such as;
PICO for clinical questions;
Quantitative: PICO
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P
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I
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C
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O
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Patient, Population or Problem
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Intervention or exposure
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Comparison
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Outcome
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What are the characteristics of the patient or population?
What is the condition or disease you are interested in?
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What do you want to do with this patient (e.g. treat, diagnose, observe)?
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What is the alternative to the intervention (e.g. placebo, different drug, surgery)?
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What are the relevant outcomes (e.g. morbidity, death, complications)?
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Qualitative: PICo
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P
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I
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Co
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Population
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Interest
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Context
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What are the characteristics of the patient or population?
What is the condition or disease you are interested in?
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The phenomena of Interest relates to a defined event, activity, experience or process
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Context is the setting or distinct characteristics.
Note: Context not comparator
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SPICE for qualitative evidence;
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S
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P
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I
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C
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E
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Setting
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Perspective
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Intervention
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Comparison
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Evaluation
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Where?
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For whom?
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What)?
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Compared to what?
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With what result?
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Booth, A. (2006). Clear and present questions: Formulating questions for evidence based practice. Library Hi Tech, 24(3), 355-368. doi:10.1108/07378830610692127
SPIDER for qualitative and mixed methods;
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S
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PI
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D
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E
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R
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Sample
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Phenomena of Interest
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Design
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Evaluation
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Research type
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Cooke, A., Smith, D., & Booth, A. (2012). Beyond PICO: The SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis. Qualitative Health Research, 22(10), 1435-1443. doi:10.1177/1049732312452938
​ECLIPSE for Health services/policy/management
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Expectation
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Client group
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Location
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Impact
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Professionals
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Service
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Expectation, improvement or innovation
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For whom is the service or potential impact?
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What is the change in the service being investigated? What would constitute success? How is this being measured?
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Wildridge, V., & Bell, L. (2002). How CLIP became ECLIPSE: A mnemonic to assist in searching for health policy/ management information. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 19(2), 113-115. doi:10.1046/j.1471-1842.2002.00378.x
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