Systematic Reviews
Rapid evidence assessment / review
Description
Rapid evidence assessments or reviews allow for a structured and rigorous search, as well as a quality assessment of the uncovered evidence, but are not as extensive and exhaustive as a systematic review. They often provide a brief summary of the evidence discovered, so that informed, evidence-based, conclusions can be drawn. They tend to be used in making informed decisions often by policy makers or are used to justify the need for further research.
Common characteristics
- Applies systematic review methodology within short timeframe.
- Provides a quick overview of the available evidence on a chosen topic
- Acknowledges the inherent weaknesses of conducting a fast, rapid review, including bias.
- Useful for finding evidence fast to support quick decisions making.
- Purposely restricted to searching a limited number of key resources or databases
- Limited in the types of studies they might include (e.g. randomised controlled trials)
- Less focus on the overall quality of the original source material or evidence
- Conducts only limited data extraction
- Uses a smaller team over several weeks, catering for tight deadlines
Additonal resources
Example
More information