|
Rapid review |
Systematic review |
|
|
Timescale |
4-24 weeks |
A year or more |
|
Sources |
Mainly databases |
Comprehensive, including hand searching, grey literature |
|
Search |
Some limits applied – usually date range and language |
Comprehensive within scope of project |
Rapid reviews are simply a simplified approach to systematic reviews. A rapid review and a systematic review use the same basic search process, with a transparent and replicable methodology and the literature is critically appraised in the same way. As a rapid review takes place over a shorter timeline than a systematic review, some of the stages are omitted or simplified. This might involve using fewer databases, a single reviewer, or not searching the grey literature.