5.2.1 Selecting a title for your systematic review

A clear, descriptive title is important to allow readers and users to readily identify the scope and relevance of the review. The clearer and more specific a title is, the more readily a reader will be able to make decisions about the potential relevance of the systematic review and the readily they will be able to locate it in indexing databases using relevant key terms.

The systematic review title should accurately describe and reflect the content of the manuscript and include relevant information with regards the participants, the types of interventions or phenomena of interest, and the context considered in the review. The title should be concise and ideally, should not be phrased as a question.

The title of the relevant manuscript should explicitly identify the publication as either a protocol for a systematic review, or the review proper. The following convention is recommended: ‘...:a systematic review (or protocol)’. An example:

‘The use of physical restraint in acute care settings: a textual evidence systematic review.’