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Context  The move towards competence‐based medical education has created a need for instruments that support and assess competence development. Portfolios seem suitable but mixed reports of their success are emerging.

Methods  To examine the effectiveness of portfolios, we searched PubMed and EMBASE using the keyword ‘portfol*’, PsychInfo and ERIC using the keywords ‘portfol*’ and ‘medical education’ and references of retrieved papers for empirical studies on portfolios in all phases of medical education. Thirty of 1939 retrieved papers met the inclusion criteria and were analysed. Data were collated against the research question, number of subjects, design, setting, findings and limitations, purpose and content, mentoring and assessment. We analysed impact using a modified version of Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy.

Results  Because differences across studies precluded statistical meta‐analysis, the …