Systematic review timeline template

• 6 groups
• 39 tasks
• 6 milestones
• 50 dependencies
• About 11 months to submission

The review, team and stage lengths are sample data. The overall duration cited below comes from published research.

What are the stages of a systematic review?

The sample groups the stages reported in PRISMA 2020 into six parts:

Milestones mark registration (week 8), searches complete (11), included studies agreed (24), extraction complete (31), results agreed (38) and submission (47). Role names begin each task, so responsibilities remain visible in print. Methods drafting overlaps screening; the extraction form is prepared during full-text screening.

How long does a systematic review take?

Borah and colleagues (BMJ Open, 2017) looked at 195 completed reviews registered in PROSPERO and found a mean of 67.3 weeks from the registered start to publication, with a range of 6 to 186 weeks.

The sample reaches submission 39 weeks after registration, leaving room for peer review inside that average. The study counted from registration, so the protocol weeks come on top.

When should you register with PROSPERO?

Register before searching in this sample. PROSPERO does not accept reviews that have started data extraction. The record publishes as soon as the guarantor and every named team member confirm, so there is no waiting bar.

PROSPERO takes reviews with health-related outcomes only; reviews for a student module go in as unpublished training records.

Why do the screening bars come in pairs?

The paired bars show each reviewer's screening work. PRISMA 2020 asks authors to report how many reviewers screened each record and report, and whether they worked independently. Reviewer 1 and Reviewer 2 have their own bars, linked start-to-start so they move together, and a conflict bar follows each round. Extraction and risk of bias work the same way.

Does it work as a literature review Gantt chart?

For a narrative literature review, remove registration, the second reviewer and risk of bias; keep the remaining stages. For a thesis with a literature review as one chapter, use a wider research schedule instead.

How do you adapt the chart?

1. Screening: stretch both rounds to your record count after the searches.
2. Team: replace the roles with your reviewers' names.
3. Delays: turn on Auto schedule under Settings and lengthen any bar. Everything linked after it moves.
4. Critical path: it is off by default and highlights correctly only with Hide weekends on. Enable both under Settings.
5. Export: send a PDF, or an Excel task table with names, dates and durations but no bars.

Choose Use template to copy the chart and its dependencies into a free account, starting on the coming Monday. For bench work, use a bench work schedule; for funding, a funding application schedule.