NUTR 2500: Sports Nutrition

Systematic reviews are often published in scholarly journals and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. They are a particular type of literature review that attempts to answer specific research questions by identifying, critically assessing, and synthesizing all the research studies that meet pre-specified eligibility criteria.

The key characteristics of a systematic review are:

• A clearly stated set of objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies
• A systematic search that attempts to identify all studies that would meet the eligibility criteria
• An explicit, reproducible methodology
• An assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies, for example, through the assessment of risk of bias
• A systematic presentation, and synthesis, of the characteristics and findings of the included studies

(Source: Higgins, J., & Green, S. (Eds.). (2011). Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions (version 5.1). http://handbook-5-1.cochrane.org)

Systematic reviews are an excellent source for learning recommendations or guidelines based on the available scientific evidence of research studies. For the Critical Review of an Ergogenic Aid assignment, they can be used for Part B, as an additional source to provide background on the chosen ergogenic aid or as a lead to relevant studies. However, a systematic review cannot be used for Part A as one of the three academic articles, which should be primary research studies.