Systematic reviews bring together individual research studies that investigate the same clinical or research question and summarize the available evidence. They are called "systematic" reviews because they follow explicit methods for finding, analyzing, and summarizing the research. These explicit methods help reduce bias and ensure that the methodology can lead to reproducible results. Because of this explicit, rigorous process, systematic reviews are considered the "gold standard" for evidence-based practice.

Systematic and scoping reviews are fairly common, but there are many different types of reviews. These articles explain:

Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L. and Booth, A. (2019), Meeting the review family: exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Info Libr J, 36: 202-222. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276

An earlier article, perhaps easier to follow:

Grant, M.J. and Booth, A. (2009), A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26: 91-108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x