Objective: To critically assess the neurological recovery and antioxidant effects of resveratrol in rat models of spinal cord injury. Data sources: Using “spinal cord injury”, “resveratrol” and “animal experiment” as the main search terms, all studies on the treatment of spinal cord injury in rats by resveratrol were searched for in PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Science Direct, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, VIP, and SinoMed databases by computer. The search was conducted from their inception date to April 2017. No language restriction was used in the literature search. Data selection: The methodological quality of each study was assessed by the initial Stroke Therapy Ac-ademic Industry Roundtable recommendations. Two reviewers independently selected studies according to the title, abstract and full text. The risk of bias in the included studies was also evaluated. Meta-analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.3 software. Outcome measures: Neurological function was assessed by the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scale score, inclined plane score and Gale’s motor function score. Molecular-biological analysis of antioxidative effects was conducted to determine superoxide dismutase levels, malondialdehyde levels, nitric oxide synthase ac-tivity, nitric oxide levels, xanthine oxidase and glutathione levels in spinal cord tissues. Results: The methodological quality of the 12 included studies was poor. The results of meta-analysis showed that compared with the control group, resveratrol significantly increased the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scale scores after spinal cord injury (n = 300, mean difference (MD) = 3.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) [2.10, 5.59], P < 0.0001). Compared with the control group, superoxide dismutase levels were significantly elevated (n = 138, standardized mean difference (SMD) = 5.22, 95% CI [2.98, 7.45], P <0.00001), but malondialdehyde levels were significantly diminished (n = 84, SMD = –3.64, 95% CI [–5.84,–1.43], P = 0.001) in the spinal cord of the resveratrol treatment group. Conclusions: Resveratrol promoted neurological recovery and exerted antioxidative effects in rat models of spinal cord injury. The limited quality of the included studies reduces the application of this meta-analysis. Therefore, more high-quality studies are needed to provide more rigorous and objective evidence for the pre-clinical treatment of spinal cord injury.