How to Conduct a Systematic Literature Review with AI Assistance

A systematic literature review is a structured answer to the question 'what does the field actually know?' The systematic part is non negotiable. Documented search terms, reproducible inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a transparent synthesis.

Step one. Scope the question. A reviewable question is narrow enough to finish but broad enough to matter. Use the PICO framework (Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) or an equivalent scaffold.

Step two. Search. Document every query you run on every database. Save the results. This is the record auditors will check.

Step three. Screen. Title and abstract screening first, full text screening second. Pre register your inclusion criteria. AI Document Chat is excellent for full text screening because it can extract structured fields (population, method, sample size) into a table in seconds.

Step four. Extract. Pull structured data from each included paper into a single table. This is where Chart Builder earns its keep. A bar chart of methods used, a scatter plot of sample size versus effect size, and a histogram of publication years tell the story before you write a sentence.

Step five. Synthesize. Write the narrative. The Research Writer can draft the section headers and transitions. The substance is still yours. A defensible review is an edited AI draft, never a pasted one.