Systematic reviews gather the findings of prior research to advance knowledge and inform decisions for policy, practice and personal lives. Review authors have applied the principles of working systematically and transparently across all types of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Systematic reviews have become an increasingly important aspect of research across all areas of social policy from health, to education and environmental science and management studies. This major work has been designed to:

• Bring together the key cutting edge historical and contemporary papers on the nature and methods of systematic reviews;
• Represent the most interesting and exciting approaches and strategies in the literature including controversies and debates;
• Include a breadth of disciplinary fields that use systematic reviews;
• Provide succinct editorial introductions to enable the reader to understand how the papers relate to each other and to other publications

The contents have been arranged thematically, and each volume includes a mix of historical and contemporary papers, providing a thorough and balanced overview of all key areas.