Systematic reviews in integrative medicine: A clinician's guide to publication

The role of evidence-based medicine in integrative medicine is becoming increasingly important, and with this increasing comes a need for succinct summaries of research evidence. Systematic reviews are essential to summarise evidence relating to efficacy and safety of healthcare and to summarise health care trends and phenomena accurately and reliably. However, reviews can bring with them numerous biases and methodological issues, particularly related to the sourcing of information used, and therefore need to be conducted in a systematic and methodical process. Specialised fields such as integrative medicine bring with them their own unique challenges in conducting an accurate and reliable review. This article describes practical and academic insights into writing a systematic review for publication.