What Is a Systematic Review? PRISMA Explained Simply

A systematic review answers a focused question by finding, appraising, and synthesising all the relevant studies using an explicit, repeatable method. Its defining feature is transparency: anyone following your steps should reach the same set of studies.

How it differs from a normal literature review

A narrative review summarises what an author chose to read. A systematic review pre-registers a protocol, searches comprehensively, and documents exactly what was included and excluded — removing selection bias. That rigour is why systematic reviews sit near the top of the evidence hierarchy.

PRISMA in plain terms

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) is a checklist and a flow diagram. The flow diagram tracks records through four stages: identified (found in databases), screened (titles/abstracts), eligible (full-text assessed), and included (final set) — with the number excluded at each step and why. It makes your search auditable.

The basic steps

Define a focused question, write a protocol, search multiple databases with documented terms, screen against inclusion criteria, extract data, appraise quality, and synthesise. Report it all with the PRISMA flow.

How ProSearch helps

ProSearch's Literature Review tier produces a multi-pass review with PRISMA-style tables and paragraph-level citation grounding — a rigorous, transparent first draft you verify and refine.