How do I update a systematic review?

When you decide to update a systematic review search, there are two ways of identifying new articles:
 

1. Rerun the original search strategy without any changes. 

Rerun the original search strategy without making any changes.  Import the results into your citation manager, and remove all articles duplicated from the original set of search results.

 
2. Rerun the original search strategy and add an entry date filter.

Rerun the original search strategy and add a date filter for when the article was added to the database (not the publication date).  An entry date filter will find any articles added to the results since you last ran the search, unlike a publication date filter, which would only find more recent articles.

 

For more information about updating your systematic review, see the box Updating Your Review? on the Step 3: Conduct Literature Searches page of our Systematic Review guide.

 

You will also need to update your PRISMA flow diagram.
 

There are special PRISMA flow diagram templates for review updates, but if your review has not been published yet, you may prefer to use the template for new reviews.

For more information about updating the PRISMA flow diagram for your systematic review, see the information on filling out a PRISMA flow diagram for review updates on the Step 8: Write the Review page of the guide.

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