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Introduction to Systematic Reviews in Animal Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Author(s) -
Sargeant J. M.,
O'Connor A. M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
zoonoses and public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.87
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1863-2378
pISSN - 1863-1959
DOI - 10.1111/zph.12128
Subject(s) - systematic review , selection (genetic algorithm) , medline , alternative medicine , animal agriculture , inclusion (mineral) , medicine , grey literature , management science , agriculture , veterinary medicine , computer science , psychology , political science , pathology , biology , engineering , artificial intelligence , law , ecology , social psychology
Summary This article is the first in a series of six articles related to systematic reviews in animal agriculture and veterinary medicine. In this article, we overview the methodology of systematic reviews and provide a discussion of their use. Systematic reviews differ qualitatively from traditional reviews by explicitly defining a specific review question, employing methods to reduce bias in the selection and inclusion of studies that address the review question (including a systematic and specified search strategy, and selection of studies based on explicit eligibility criteria), an assessment of the risk of bias for included studies and objectively summarizing the results qualitatively or quantitatively (i.e. via meta‐analysis). Systematic reviews have been widely used to address human healthcare questions and are increasingly being used in veterinary medicine. Systematic reviews can provide veterinarians and other decision‐makers with a scientifically defensible summary of the current state of knowledge on a topic without the need for the end‐user to read the vast amount of primary research related to that topic.