Systematic Literature Reviews at Master's Level: Step 6: Write up your review

Introduction

Methods

Your methods section should include: 

• An overview of your search strategy (which databases you searched, the date you completed the searches, your search concepts, any filters or limits you applied to the search). 
• An overview of how you conducted any grey literature or citation searching 
• Your inclusion and exclusion criteria 
• Information about how you completed the screening process (what software you used, how many screeners there were) 
• Information about how you completed the data extraction process  
• Details of any risk of bias or quality assessment have done, including the tools you used 

Results/Findings

The start of this section should include information about the results of your search including your PRISMA flow chart.  

A 'characteristics of included studies' table is a useful inclusion in the results section of any systematic literature review.  

How the rest of this section is written will be highly dependent on the topic of your review. If you are unsure please talk to your supervisor.  

Discussion

Conclusion

Reference List/Bibliography

You may find it helpful to use a reference manager (e.g. EndNote or Zotero) to help you keep track of your references and generate your reference list. More information about how to use a reference manager can be found in our 'Managing your references' guide.

Appendix

Full details of your search strategy for each of the databases you searched should be included in the appendix. This should provide enough information for someone else to be able to run the same search. You should already have this information in the notes you took when developing your search strategy. An example of how this may be presented can be found below.

If you created a data extraction form for your review you should include a blank copy of this in the appendix.