Systematic reviews in Health and Medicine are the most established, and therefore have the most evidence to support the production of an effective review. As a starting point, it is strongly recommended to read a few systematic reviews from the Cochrane Collaboration, which as the 'gold standard' of systematic review organisations produce some of the highest impact papers.
The InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group Search Filter Resource provides a regularly updated selection of papers that discuss search strategies for specific research designs. A must review when commencing your search.
For identifying excellent examples of Search Strategies searching The Cochrane Library is the best place to start.
TRIP Database includes a 'Systematic Review' filter in the search and you can identify SRs in the general literature with the FAQ: How do I find published or prospective Systematic Reviews?
If you would like to Critically Appraise a Systematic Review for Quality, both CASP and CEBM have a Systematic Review Checklists at https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/ and https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/resources/ebm-tools/critical-appraisal-tools
Testing Treatments by 
Assembling the Pieces of a Systematic Review : A Guide for Librarians. by 
How to Read a Paper by 
BMC Medical Research Methodology
Health sciences literature review made easy : the matrix method by Consider for Most Reviews
| Name | Help Pages | Publisher | Subject Term List | Unlimited Search Strings | Proximity Search | Coverage |
| Medline with Full Text | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | General Medicine |
| CINAHL | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Nursing and Allied Health |
| PsycInfo | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Psychology and Psychiatry |
| Academic Search Ultimate | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Multi-Discipline but Limited |
Additional
| Name | Help Pages | Publisher | Subject Term List | Unlimited Search Strings | Proximity Search | Coverage |
| Scopus | Yes | Elsevier | No | Yes | W/? | Multi-Discipline |
| AMED | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Allied and Complementary Medicine |
| SPORTDiscus with Full Text | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Sports Medicine |
| Web of Science | Clarivate | No | Yes | NEAR/? | Multi-Discipline | |
| SOCindex | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Sociology |
| Business Source Complete | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Business |
| EMBASE | Ovid | Yes | Yes | ADJ? | Pharmacology | |
| Child Development & Adolescent Studies | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Paediatrics and Child Development |
| LGBTQ+ Source | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | LGBTQ+ |
| EconLit | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Health Economics |
| ERIC | Yes | EBSCO | Yes | Yes | N? | Education and Health Literacy |
| Cochrane Library (CENTRAL) | Yes | Wiley | Yes | Yes | NEAR/? | Reviews, Protocols and Trials |
Publisher. This is the provider of the interface. Adding databases from the same publisher is a shrewd policy as it allows you to quickly reproduce searches across databases (the boolean and proximity operators remain the same, you only need to select subject terms)
Subject Term List: Does this database have a browsable subject term/theasaurus list?
Unlimited Search Strings: Does this database allow searches to be as complex as desired, with multiple nesting brackets and boolean operators.
Coverage: Is the database known to be multidisciplinary or limited in coverage? Is it limited to a specific subject?
About PubMed
Many researchers use Pubmed as a starting point for Systematic Reviews, however there are limitations to the interface not present in either the EBSCO or OVID interfaces for Medline searching. It should be considered as a additional search to ensure that the most up to date evidence is retrieved.
There is a publishing lag between what is available on Pubmed and what is available on Medline (From Supplementary searches of PubMed to improve currency of MEDLINE and MEDLINE In-Process searches via Ovid)
Downloadable List of Search Operators
Jason Curtis, from Shrewsbury and Telford Health Libraries has produced this excellent document Search operators in bibliographic databases that lists all the variations between databases. Very useful when moving search strategies between databases.
Grey Literature
Many systematic reviews, especially qualitative or realist reviews, also now include a search of the Grey Literature, valuable Non-Journal resources such as Policy and Guidelines. Our Grey Literature LibGuide includes a range of Grey Literature databases useful in a search strategy.
Decolonising Literature Searching
Are you producing a search for a topic focusing with a worldwide or non-EU/US subject (The 'Global South', or in Health LMIC filters). Search strategies can be improved with adding unique, country specific databases to your search. Our Decolonising Literature Searching LibGuide has further information.
A good article on Evidence Synthesis with more of a global focus is the UNICEF Methodological Briefs on Evidence Synthesis
