Yes you can. There's some systematic review and meta analysis conducted using the unpublished research work.

Given that any contribution to scientific knowledge is only meaningful in the context of existing knowledge then some form of a literature review is a necessary component of a PhD thesis. Your systematic review and meta-analysis may not replace a broad overview of the field, but it is certainly a valuable addition and possibly merits it's own chapter. Different disciplines have different conventions but in the end, a good examiner will be able to see the contribution of this work however you choose to integrate it. To me, the close linkage between your review and the experiments you designed makes it clear that you absolutely have to include the systematic review and meta-analysis in the thesis. Why would you not?

Many thanks Dr. Peter Donald Griffiths

Hi Dr. Kentiba;

In some institutions (like mine), it is essential to explore the existing litterature and report the finding as litterature review which is an essential part in every thesis.

However, to discuss the finding of your experimentation with your own finding from litterature review is not acceptable.

Not only it is accepted, it is essential to develop your research question.

Good luck with your thesis

Existing knowledge summarized through systematic review or meta-analysis which helped you to plan your experiment must be published in your thesis as part of methodology in terms of planning and development of experiment.

This will help other researchers to understand the process of development of your experiment and guide them in future.

In the end you want to share your work in public domain so why won't you share the background in which it was done.

Of course, it is possible and even necessary, because the preparation of a systematic review and metanalysis is also a study. Moreover, the evidence obtained by a doctoral student in the framework of the preparation of a systematic review is of higher quality and the more practical the recommendations on the results of the dissertation research

I think it depends on the scientific area one is engaged in.

It may vary from country to country and even from university to university. Some accept it as part of PhD and some not allowed it. But, most of the time, the systemic review and meta-analysis are important in validating the PhD tools and strengthening the literature part. Hence, may not be independently accepted as PhD process since the PhD has its own objectives to be answered. If one of the objectives are planned to be answered through meta-analysis at the bignining, it will be considered.

Mulusew Andualem Asemahagn I have not seen any University/country that prohibits use of systematic reviews and/or meta-analysis for PhD. You can definately conduct sys review to uncover what is known/unknown in the area of your PhD project. Sys review/meta-analysis is being considered as an original work by most academic editors. These days it is a sort of norm that PhD students first need to synthesis the existing knowledge via sys review (it is also more convenient) and then conduct ones own primary study.

Gizachew Assefa Tessema,

Many thanks!

Dear Efrem Kentiba

Thanks for opening this wonderful discussion here.

You can also read the following article reflecting European Universities experience. Article Acceptance of a systematic review as a thesis: Survey of bio...

The only undeniable challenge in conducting SR in Ethiopia (and Africa) is the lack of access to basic bibliographic databases (we only have limited access to PubMed database) and eventually the SR papers lack the three pillars of SR: comprehensiveness, being systematic, and transparency. See the following case study by Greyson et al.(https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-6275-y). At some point, I will write a commentary on the Ethiopian SR published studies, which has shown an increseing trend in the past 5 years. Mihiretu M. Kebede

Thanks, Gizachew Assefa Tessema for mentioning me in this interesting discussion. Indeed, there is a promising development of systematic reviews and increasing effort to synthesize Ethiopian health literature. I agree with the lack of access to relevant research databases which grossly limit the comprehensiveness of systematic reviews. While appreciating the development, I suggest expanding collaboration with people who have access to research databases and collaborating with research librarians will help improve the synthesis of relevant literature. Systematic reviews tailored to country-level data are more useful for national policymakers and they should be comprehensive, systematic and transparent.

I like your idea of writing critics. Focus on writing solution to improvise the situation. I would be happy to be part of it if count me in.

To answer @Efrem Kentiba's question, yes it is possible to include systematic review and meta-analysis as a subpart of PhD dissertation. In some universities, it is also possible for your entire dissertation to be based on two to four thematically related systematic review papers with or without meta-analysis.

Mihiretu M. Kebede Of course, I thought you in my mind in my planned commentary where we can provide a balanced critics and the way forward

@ Mihiret M. Kebede and Gizachew Assefa Tessema,

I'm eagerly waiting the commentary ...

I also found the evidence generated from SR/MA most important for my main PhD project.