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Systematic reviewing: Writing up your search strategy

What is PRISMA?

PRISMA stands for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. It is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The aim of the PRISMA Statement is to help authors improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA can also be used as a basis for reporting literature reviews for other types of research.

prisma flow chart

How does it work?

There is a PRISMA Statement which is a 27-item checklist and a four-phase flow diagram. The checklist and diagram will evolve as new evidence emerges. It is an update and expansion of the older QUOROM Statement. The website contains the current definitive version of the PRISMA Statement.

The easiest way to use PRISMA is to download the PRISMA flow diagram as a word document to your computer and edit it to list the databases used and the number of references retrieved. If you go through it updating each part of the diagram, then it will give a logical description of the steps you have taken to complete your literature review. If you would like more information on how to fill in the flow diagram, we have a short help page.

If you want to go in to more detail, then you can download and use the 27-item checklist.

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PILOT by Imperial College London, modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.