Assessing the validity of a rapid review against a systematic literature review. A comparison of systematic literature reviews done by Cochrane with rapid reviews and the impact on meta-analyses results.

Introduction: Rapid reviews (RRs) offer a less rigorous and methodical approach to the process of reviewing literature in comparison to systematic reviews (SRs), which are currently a gold standard.

Materials And Methods: Three different, expedited strategies of the review process were designed in the different scopes, already reviewed in Cochrane's SRs. Then, the results of our literature searches and the study selection process were compared to the ones from SRs.

Systematic literature reviews over the years.

Nowadays, systematic literature reviews (SLRs) and meta-analyses are often placed at the top of the study hierarchy of evidence. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the trends in SLRs of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) throughout the years. Medline database was searched, using a highly focused search strategy.

Rapid literature review: definition and methodology.

A rapid literature review (RLR) is an alternative to systematic literature review (SLR) that can speed up the analysis of newly published data. The objective was to identify and summarize available information regarding different approaches to defining RLR and the methodology applied to the conduct of such reviews. The Medline and EMBASE databases, as well as the grey literature, were searched using the set of keywords and their combination related to the targeted and rapid review, as well as design, approach, and methodology.