There are two main types of guideline/standards documents for evidence synthesis projects:
You may also want to use a protocol template.
These guidelines are often developed by research organizations or groups in various fields and reflects the specific scholarly traditions of those fields. There are also specific guidelines developed for specific types of review articles.
Select the methodology and reporting guidelines that best match your project.
NOTE: This library guide is not meant to serve as methodological guidance. It is curated resources and help to guide you through the process, but should be thoroughly supplemented with appropriate guidance documents from your field.
Note: Health and medicine has led the field in developing evidence synthesis methodology. If you cannot find a guidelines appropriate to your field or review type, review the methodological guidelines from Cochrane and discuss appropriate adaptation of those guidelines with colleagues in you field or the CSU Evidence Synthesis Librarian.
Evidence Maps / Evidence Gap Maps / Mapping Reviews
Scoping Reviews
Integrative Reviews
Rapid Reviews / Rapid Evidence Assessment
Realist Reviews and Meta-Narratives
You may have heard of the PRISMA guidelines. PRISMA stands for "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses," and is clearly a reporting guideline. As such, it is inaccurate to state that a project was conducted according to these guidelines.
The PRISMA guidelines and all PRISMA extensions are easiest to use by first consulting the checklist and then reviewing each checklist item against the 'explanations and elaborations' paper for examples of what to write and explanations of the necessary content.
CSU Libraries does not endorse the use of any specific templates; however, the following are a selection of work plans, search design, data management plan and protocol templates that can help you plan and write your evidence synthesis project.
Always check these against the appropriate methodology and reporting guidelines!
The CSU Libraries offers expert evidence synthesis project support for systematic reviews, scoping reviews, evidence maps, and more.
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