There are many different types of reviews and evidence syntheses! Therefore, it's important to pick the review--also known as framing--that fits the needs and scope of your project. The table below is a side-by-side comparison of Systematic, Scoping, and Systematized Reviews.
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Systematic Review
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Scoping Review
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Systematized Review
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Framing the Type of Review
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Intent is to provide a recommendation on a focused topic or to show the need for future research
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Intent is to show the current breadth & depth of literature on a topic.
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Intent is to show the coverage of a topic, and to provide recommendations for future research.
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Stating the research question
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Clearly focused question
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Broad question, specific topic
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Can be focused or broad.
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Defining inclusion/exclusion criteria
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Defined prior to performing the search and screening the articles
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Can be defined after performing the search and preliminary review of articles
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Can be defined prior to the search or after.
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Choosing databases to search
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Use more than one, as many as appropriate
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Use more than one, as many as appropriate
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Use more than one, as many as appropriate
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Performing the searches
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Exhaustive, reproducible
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Exhaustive, reproducible
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As exhaustive as time allows
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PRISMA Flow Diagrams
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Should be included
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Should be included
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Not necessary to include
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Screening the studies & assessing quality
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Blinded to remove selection bias
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Blinded to remove selection bias
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Blinded if possible
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Adapted from Grant MJ, Booth A. A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Info Libr J. 2009;26(2):91-108. doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x
