What is a rapid review?
Context of a rapid review
Purpose of this resource bank
Additional resources
The resource bank was developed by
Roos Verstraeten (International Food Policy Institute, Dakar, Senegal),
Leah Salm (Institute of Development Studies, UK),
and Andrew Booth (University of Sheffield, UK).
Recent years have witnessed a growing political commitment to addressing the high rates of maternal and child malnutrition in the West Africa region. Such commitment needs to be effectively translated into appropriate policy choices and program action to generate sustained change at scale. Transform Nutrition West Africa therefore aims to improve and support policy and program decisions and actions to accelerate reductions in maternal and child malnutrition through an inclusive process of knowledge generation and mobilization throughout the region.
Within the project, we produced high-quality evidence notes that aim to inform policy and program decision-making. The topics are based on partner priorities and on current challenges and evidence gaps in the region. A rapid review methodology was used to synthesize the evidence. We have developed and used templates that are a useful tool for researchers and decision-makers to produce quality evidence reviews in a timely manner in low- and middle-income settings. The procedures to follow, the templates, and the relevant resources are compiled in this resource bank.
TNWA Rapid Reviews
A Resource Bank
Rapid reviews are a form of knowledge synthesis that follows systematic review processes, but components of the process are simplified or omitted in order to produce information in a timely manner. Rapid reviews are “an efficient approach to generating the necessary context-sensitive knowledge needed to inform decisions” (Tricco, Langlois, Straus 2017).
What is a rapid review?
This resource bank aims to provide practical guidance on how to conduct a rapid review in response to stakeholders’ requests. It offers a step-by-step guide, complete with fillable templates for each step in the process, as applied in a low- or middle-income setting. It is designed as an accessible and useful tool to help researchers and decision-makers produce high-quality evidence in a timely manner.
Purpose of this resource bank
Stepwise approach to conducting a rapid review
This section introduces the user of this resource bank to rapid review approaches. It provides a rationale for their use and explains their application to informed decision-making in nutrition research in low- and middle-income settings.
STEP 1
Topic selection and refinement
This step summarizes strategies for selecting and refining your topic for a rapid review. It highlights the importance of engaging with stakeholders (that is, those requesting the review) throughout the rapid review process to ensure that the review is fit for purpose and is relevant and applicable to decision-making processes.
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STEP 1
Topic selection and refinement
1
2
STEP 2
Research question
This step provides strategies and frameworks to structure a research question and help initiate the rapid review.
TEMPLATE 1
Question frameworks
STEP 2
Research question
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Templates
Keep track of your findings with our templates.
Who developed this resource bank?
3
STEP 3
Protocol
5
STEP 5
Searching for evidence
7
STEP 7
Data extraction
9
STEP 9
Knowledge synthesis
4
STEP 4
Eligibility criteria
6
STEP 6
Screening and study selection
8
STEP 8
Quality assessment
10
STEP 10
Report production and dissemination
STEP 3
Protocol
The protocol serves as the starting point for the review process and is key to ensuring transparency on the methodological decisions taken throughout; it also ensures that the review is fit for its intended purpose. This step highlights what to include in the rapid review protocol, including searching the literature and setting the criteria for study selection, data extraction, and synthesizing and reporting findings in a systematic way.
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STEP 5
Searching for evidence
Searching for evidence in a rapid review requires various streamlined steps while maintaining scientific rigor. This step outlines how to build and refine your search syntax, perform scoping searches, select your databases, and log your decisions.
STEP 7
Data extraction
Data extraction is an essential step in translating the important information within studies into key findings on which to report. We zoom in on what data items to extract and provide links to extraction tools and forms.
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STEP 9
Knowledge synthesis
This step summarizes different approaches to analysing and synthesizing your findings, as well as different graphical and visualization tools for presentation of findings.
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STEP 4
Eligibility criteria
This step describes how to use a question framework to define eligibility criteria for selecting studies. It includes a discussion of options for imposing restrictions that will ensure timeliness of the rapid review.
TEMPLATE 4
Eligibility criteria
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STEP 6
Screening and study selection
This step provides a practical walk-through of the different steps to both screening and selecting studies. These include title, abstract, and full-text screening, screening templates, and logging results on a flow chart.
TEMPLATE 6
Screening
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STEP 8
Quality assessment
Depending on the purpose of the rapid review, quality assessment may or may not be needed. This step offers an overview of different tools for assessing study quality.
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STEP 10
Report production and dissemination
This resource bank provides all elements needed to develop a rapid review report. The protocol developed serves as a guide to writing your report; all necessary ingredients are provided for completing each step (using the templates).
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TEMPLATE 2
Protocol
TEMPLATE 3
Protocol checklist
It also provides relevant details on protocol registration or publication (and any changes made) as well as a helpful checklist.
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TEMPLATE 5
Search syntax term builder
TEMPLATE 7
Flowchart
TEMPLATE 8
Extraction
TEMPLATE 6
Screening
TEMPLATE 7
Flowchart
TEMPLATE 1
Question frameworks
TEMPLATE 8
Extraction
TEMPLATE 5
Search syntax term builder
TEMPLATE 4
Eligibility criteria
TEMPLATE 2
Protocol
TEMPLATE 3
Protocol checklist
View the full report
TEMPLATE 8
Extraction
Transform Nutrition West Africa is a regional platform to enable effective policy and programmatic action on nutrition.
It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2017–2021 and is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
W westafrica.transformnutrition.org
twitter.com/TN_NutritionRPC
E IFPRI-tnwa@cgiar.org
Templates
Decisionmakers (including implementers, policymakers, technical agencies) require accurate and relevant evidence by which to plan, develop, and implement nutrition and health programs in a timely fashion. Rapid reviews offer a rapid and timely approach to providing actionable and relevant evidence that can be used to inform decisions about health systems in both routine and emergency contexts.
Context of a rapid review?
Read more
Additional resources
Further reading can be found here.
Additional resources
TEMPLATE 1 Question frameworks
TEMPLATE 2 Protocol
TEMPLATE 3 Protocol checklist
TEMPLATE 4 Eligibility criteria
TEMPLATE 5 Search syntax term builder
TEMPLATE 6 Screening
TEMPLATE 7 Flowchart
TEMPLATE 8 Extraction
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