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EXDL 802: Doctoral Seminar

Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences

Systematic reviews are literature reviews that adhere closely to a set of scientific methods that explicitly aim to limit systematic error (bias), mainly by attempting to identify, appraise and synthesize all relevant studies (of whatever design) in order to answer a particular question (or set of questions). In carrying out this task they set out their methods in advance, and in detail, as one would for any piece of social research. In this respect, as we shall see, they are quite unlike most ‘‘traditional’’ narrative reviews.

Excerpt from: Petticrew, M., & Roberts, H. (2008). Why do we need systematic reviews? In: Systematic reviews in the social sciences: A practical guide. (pp. 9-10). John Wiley & Sons. Link to the full text of the book above.


If you would like additional comprehensive overviews of the process of Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences, please see:

Steps of a Systematic Review simplified!

Please watch the short video below from the Brown University School of Public Health for an overview of The Steps of a Systematic Review!

Literature review vs. Systematic Review overview

Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0

Kysh, Lynn (2013): Difference between a systematic review and a literature review. figshare. Poster. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.766364.v1

What's the difference between a Literature Review and a Systematic Review?

Please watch this "Research Short" called Conducting a Systematic Literature Review for a great overview of the difference between literature reviews and systematic reviews.

Research Shorts are short research video summaries by George Veletsianos and The Digital Learning and Social Media Research Group: http://www.thedlrgroup.com/.

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