Education (Theory and Practice)

This guidance has been developed for social science students in taught postgraduate programmes at the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, who are undertaking a systematic review as an assessed piece of work as part of their programme. It explains what a systematic review is, and how the library can support you with your systematic review.  

If you are an IOE staff member or PhD student carrying out a full systematic review, please see our full guide on systematic reviews, or contact the library to find out how we can support you. 

Where a systematic review is part of an assessed piece of work, such as a dissertation, we can provide training and guidance with the following aspects of the review:  

• scoping searches, to gain a broad overview of available literature; 
• developing search strategies; 
• suggesting relevant databases; 
• identifying grey literature and on-going research; 
• managing references; 
• setting up search alerts.  

The following online guides give information which may be useful for these aspects of a systematic review:  

If you have reviewed the online guides and would like more support, contact the library to arrange a one-to-one session with a librarian.  

There are a number of different ways to approach systematic reviews. You may come across guidance which has been developed for clinical reviews, and which is difficult to apply to the social sciences.  

Systematic reviews in the social sciences tend to be more exploratory and iterative than those in scientific fields. They may focus more on qualitative studies, and are more explanatory in order to develop conceptual/theoretical conclusions.  

The social sciences have less universal ‘controlled vocabulary’ than the hard sciences. Different databases use different subject terms, which means that different search terms may need to be used in each database included in the systematic review. Grey literature is often found outside of databases, and natural language may need to be employed to find it.  

The stages of a systematic review generally follow a series of steps outlined as follows: 

1. Clarifying the problem, defining the research question and its boundaries, and setting out criteria for studies to be included in the review. This information, along with a plan for carrying out the review, should be presented in a protocol. 
2. Identifying studies, including selecting appropriate sources and searching for studies. 
3. Screening and selecting the studies, collecting and presenting the data from the studies, and / or describing the methods and findings of the studies using a structured approach. 
4. Appraising the relevance and quality of each study, which may involve assessing the risk of bias. 
5. Analysing and synthesising the data from the studies in order to answer the research question, which may involve a meta-analysis. 
6. Assessing reporting biases. 
7. Presenting results. 
8. Interpreting results and presenting conclusions. 

The term 'systematic review' is often used quite broadly to represent various types of review at differing levels. There are practical limitations in undertaking a systematic review, for example, if you are undertaking a systematic review for a piece of coursework, a PhD theses, or a commissioned systematic review by a funder, the purpose, time, and number of researchers working on the review will vary. It is still possible to utilise the main principles of systematic review methods though the extent they are applied will vary. You should consider the extent of the systematic review you are carrying out in order to inform your methodology and seek appropriate support.

Contact us to find out about the level of support UCL Library Services can provide depending on the nature and extent of your systematic review.

Systematic reviews are a type of literature review of research which require equivalent standards of rigour as primary research. They have a clear, logical rationale that is reported to the reader of the review. They are used in research and policymaking to inform evidence-based decisions and practice. They differ from traditional literature reviews particularly in the following elements of conduct and reporting. 

Systematic reviews:  

• use explicit and transparent methods. 
• are a piece of research following a standard set of stages. 
• are accountable, replicable and updateable. 
• involve users to ensure a review is relevant and useful. 

The following resources were informative in developing this guide, and may give you additional helpful guidance.

• Gough, D. and Thomas, J. (2016) ‘Systematic reviews of research in education: aims, myths and multiple methods’, Review of Education, 4(1), pp. 84–102. doi: 10.1002/rev3.3068. 
• Cohen, L, Manion, L, & Morrison, K (2018), Research Methods in Education, Taylor & Francis: London. pp 181-2, pp430-6.
• Boland, A. et al. (eds.) (2017) Doing a systematic review : a student’s guide. 2nd edition. Los Angeles: SAGE.