Systematic Reviews: A Brief Historical Overview

Literature reviews, and more particularly systematic reviews, are increasingly being produced and published. The past 40 years have been marked by considerable development of methodologies and methods in literature reviews. This paper aims to provide a brief historical overview of systematic reviews which will help to have a better understanding of what, why, when, and how they were developed. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part will provide a definition of systematic reviews and their main characteristics. The second part will present three main periods of the evolution of systematic reviews: foundation period (1970-1989), institutionalization period (1990-2000), and diversification period (2001-). These periods can be distinguished by the users of scientific evidence, the methodological influence, and the technological development. The last part will summarize the main elements in the history of the systematic reviews and present some direction for future research.