Systematic review methods

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, sport and exercise psychology researchers are using systematic review methods to examine the evidence on a particular topic. Unfortunately, not all systematic reviews are created equal and the methodological quality of the review will depend on the quality of the methods used in the review process. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of essential methods and resources used in systematic reviews that serve to increase transparency, replicability, robustness, ethics, and translation of results. To achieve our purpose, we describe aspects of the systematic review process including best standards for planning and conducting a systematic review, coherence, literature searches, article screening, data extraction, reporting guidelines, open science practices, publication ethics, and disseminating results. In providing an overview of these methods for systematic reviews, we highlight relevant literature, resources, and examples from the sport and exercise psychology literature. Finally, we offer nine guidelines to follow to enhance systematic review methods used in sport and exercise psychology.

KEYWORDS:

• Literature review
• literature search
• open science
• article screening
• knowledge translation
• publication ethics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Reviewer’ is used to represent anyone who is interested in or is actively conducting a systematic review, or who has conducted a systematic review. Reviewers could include researchers, professors, scientists, students, health professionals, policy makers, or government employees, among others.