Systematic Review
A literature review that follows a predefined, transparent protocol for searching, screening, and appraising studies so the process can be replicated.
A systematic review answers a focused question by identifying, screening, and appraising all available studies according to a protocol written before searching begins. The protocol specifies databases, search terms, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and how study quality will be assessed, so another researcher could repeat the process and reach similar results. This distinguishes it from a traditional narrative review, which selects sources at the author's discretion.
For a thesis, a systematic review can serve as the literature review itself or stand alone as a study, particularly in health and social sciences. Its value to you as a writer is defensibility: when an examiner asks why a source was included or omitted, you can point to explicit criteria rather than judgment alone. Document every search and screening decision as you go, because reconstructing them later is far harder.
Writing the thesis this term belongs to?
CiteDash takes a thesis from research question to a compiled document, with AI that cites only real papers and verifies every claim against its source.