Using CINAHL for Evidence-based/Research-based Practice: Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

CINAHL defines a systematic review as “a specific type of literature review in which a concept is identified and the research which has studied it is analyzed and evaluated. The results of this research are synthesized to present the current state of knowledge regarding the concept” [from the Scope Note Display for the CINAHL subject heading “Systematic Review”].

Searching tips:

• To locate articles that are systematic reviews or contain systematic reviews, limit your retrieval by publication type to “systematic review.” Your results will include the topic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (identified as The Cochrane Library in the source field) as well as systematic reviews published in journals.
• To locate articles that talk about systematic reviews (how to develop them, use them, etc.) search using the subject heading “systematic review.” Note: Some references will have “systematic review” as both a publication type and subject heading. Some meta-analyses (but not all) will be identified with the publication type “systematic review.”

CINAHL defines meta analysis as “the quantitative analysis of two or more independent studies to integrate and synthesize the findings and describe the features of the studies that contribute to variation in their results” [from the Scope Note Display for the CINAHL subject heading “Meta Analysis”].

Searching tip:

• There is no publication type in CINAHL to specifically identify a meta analysis. You should use the subject heading “meta analysis” to locate articles that are meta analyses or articles that talk about the process of meta analysis. Some meta-analyses (but not all) will be retrieved by using the publication type “systematic review.”