Starting a review

This chapter introduces some of the key considerations for review authors who are about to start a systematic review. Because the priorities of decision makers and consumers may be different from those of researchers, it is important that review authors consider carefully what questions are important to these different stakeholders. Systematic reviews are more likely to be relevant to a broad range of end users if they are informed by the involvement of people with a range of experiences, in terms of both the topic and the methodology. Cochrane has developed methodological expectations for the conduct, reporting and updating of systematic reviews of interventions and their plain language summaries (Plain Language Expectations for Authors of Cochrane Summaries). Good data management, project management and quality assurance mechanisms are essential for the completion of a successful systematic review.