A systematic review involves a number of people working together as a team, and typically includes the following roles:
- At least two reviewers working independently to screen abstracts, with a potential third as a tie-breaker
- Subject experts to clarify issues related to the topic,
- Statistician to help with data analysis
- A project leader to coordinate and write the final report.
- A librarian(s) to develop comprehensive search strategies and identify appropriate databases
A systematic review can take at least a year to complete - if you are not working in a team, or do not have a significant amount of time to complete your review, you can still apply the methods used in systematic reviews to your own research project. As one of the main goals of a systematic review is to try and eliminate potential bias, working independently can be viewed negatively. If you must work independently, you should identify this limitation at the time of publication.