Sequential Systematic Reviews: A Novel Approach to Historical Landscape Mapping in Behavioral Science Research

Objectives: To develop a novel methodology that not only withstands the rigor of a systematic review, but also can expand to capture a historical landscape. A team of clinical psychologists sought to evaluate the history and evolution of the concept of emotional dysregulation, with the aim of cultivating a ‘heat map’ of the prevailing theoretical frameworks per decade, reaching back as far as possible. We adapted the systematic review methodology to fit these needs, calling them “sequential systematic reviews.”

Methods: Initial narrative review searches were performed to identify pertinent concepts and keywords. Reference lists of key papers were mined for relevant past citations, which were then tracked chronologically backwards, used for keyword harvesting, mined for further citations, and so on to 1900. Harvested keywords informed a large, systematic search strategy in PsycINFO, Web of Science, ERIC, Global Health Archive, and Google Scholar. Tracking citations backwards allowed the final, full systematic strategy to capture older terminology that otherwise would not have been isolated.

Results: Total results from all databases amounted to over 100,000 articles. The team is currently using Covidence systematic review software to inspect the literature by decade, beginning with 1900-1909. To isolate each decade’s results, the large systematic strategy is run, and results from that decade are extracted accordingly, resulting in sequential systematic reviews. The reviews are ongoing, but this methodology has presented unique problem solving opportunities, such as a wealth of literature to deduplicate, restrictions in export options, and difficulty accessing older citations. Books, specifically, are a major challenge given the interlibrary lending restrictions presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusions: This is a novel methodology that aims to adhere to the rigor and strength of a systematic review but that has been adapted to search an expansive historical landscape. This project is ongoing, and further adaptation and trials will be needed to test its efficacy. However, such novel usage of a robust and trusted methodology has potentially wide-reaching applications for the medical history literature.