What Are PRISMA Guidelines and How Do You Apply Them in Your Literature Review?
Reading Time: 17 minutesSo your supervisor just told you your literature review needs to follow “PRISMA guidelines” — and you nodded like you knew exactly what that meant. Then you got home, typed it into Google, and fell into a rabbit hole of academic jargon so dense it could knock you out. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Thousands of UK students — especially those writing dissertations in nursing, health sciences, social work, psychology, and education — hit this exact wall every year. PRISMA sounds intimidating, but once you break it down, it’s actually one of the most useful frameworks you’ll ever use for a literature review. This guide will walk you through what PRISMA guidelines are, why UK universities care so much about them, and exactly how to apply them step by step. No jargon. No fluff. Just what you need to know to get it done properly. What Does PRISMA Actually Stand For? PRISMA stands for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. It’s a reporting guideline — essentially a checklist and process — designed to make systematic reviews transparent, reproducible, and credible. The most current version is PRISMA 2020, updated in February 2021. If your university or module handbook mentions PRISMA, this is the version you should be using unless they specify otherwise. Here’s the key thing most students miss: PRISMA doesn’t tell you how to conduct your review. It tells you how to report it. It’s about transparency — showing your reader exactly what you searched for, where you searched, how many results you got, and how you narrowed them down to the studies you actually used. This distinction matters because a lot of students try to use PRISMA as a methodology when it’s really a reporting framework. Your methodology is the systematic review process itself; PRISMA is how you document and present that process. ❤️Need Affordable PRISMA or Overall Dissertation Support? WhatsApp our writer NOW (Click on the number to jump to the WhatsApp Message Section.): +44 7876 010823 Why Do UK Universities Require PRISMA? UK universities — particularly those with programmes in nursing, allied health, social work, and psychology — align strongly with evidence-based practice. Institutions that follow NHS research standards, NICE guidelines, or professional bodies like the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) expect students to demonstrate rigorous, transparent evidence gathering. PRISMA helps you do exactly that. When a marker reads your dissertation, they want to know: Where did you search? (PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane?) What search terms did you use? How many studies did you find and how many did you exclude — and why? What are your inclusion and exclusion criteria? A well-executed PRISMA flow diagram answers all of this in a single, clean visual. That’s why markers love it — and why it directly impacts your grade. 💡 Pro Tip: Even if your dissertation isn’t a formal systematic review, using a PRISMA-style approach in a standard literature review shows methodological sophistication. Markers notice — and reward — that level of rigour. The PRISMA 2020 Checklist: What’s Actually in It? The PRISMA 2020 checklist has 27 items across seven sections. You won’t need all 27 for a standard student dissertation, but knowing what they cover helps you understand what’s expected. PRISMA 2020 Checklist Section What It Covers Title Identifies the report as a systematic review Abstract Structured summary including objectives, methods, results Introduction Rationale and objectives of the review Methods Eligibility criteria, information sources, search strategy, selection process, data extraction, risk of bias Results Study selection (with flow diagram), study characteristics, results of syntheses Discussion Interpretation of results, limitations, conclusions Other Information Registration, protocol, funding, competing interests For most UK undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, you’ll focus primarily on the Methods and Results sections — specifically the search strategy, eligibility criteria, and the flow diagram. Understanding the PRISMA Flow Diagram The flow diagram is the most recognisable part of PRISMA — and the part most students either do brilliantly or completely mess up. It visually shows the journey of your literature search from the initial number of records identified right down to the final studies included in your review. The PRISMA 2020 flow diagram has four stages: 1. Identification How many records did you find across all databases? Did you search any other sources (grey literature, reference lists, websites)? 2. Screening After removing duplicates, how many records were screened by title and abstract? 3. Eligibility How many full-text articles were assessed? How many were excluded — and for what specific reasons? 4. Included How many studies made the final cut? Each box feeds into the next with arrows, and every exclusion needs a reason. This is where students often lose marks — they exclude studies without clearly stating why. ❤️Need Affordable PRISMA or Overall Dissertation Support? WhatsApp our writer NOW (Click on the number to jump to the WhatsApp Message Section.): +44 7876 010823 Step-by-Step: How to Apply PRISMA in Your Literature Review Let’s get practical. Here’s how to actually do this. Step 1: Define Your Research Question Before you search a single database, you need a clear, focused research question. Most UK students in health and social sciences use the PICO framework: P — Population (who are you studying?) I — Intervention (what’s being done or examined?) C — Comparison (what’s it being compared to?) O — Outcome (what are you measuring?) Example: In adult patients with Type 2 diabetes (P), does structured physical activity (I) compared to standard care (C) improve glycaemic control (O)? Getting this right before you search saves you enormous time. If your research question is too broad, you’ll drown in results. Too narrow, and you’ll find nothing. Step 2: Select Your Databases Your university library gives you access to several academic databases. Choose the ones most relevant to your field: PubMed / MEDLINE — biomedical and health sciences CINAHL — nursing and allied health PsycINFO — psychology and mental health Cochrane Library — systematic reviews and RCTs ERIC — education Web of Science / Scopus — multidisciplinary Record every