Systematic review search strategies are poorly reported and not reproducible: a cross-sectional meta-research study.

database searches reporting guidelines reproducibility search strategies systematic reviews transparency

Journal

Journal of clinical epidemiology
ISSN: 1878-5921
Titre abrégé: J Clin Epidemiol
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8801383

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
03 Dec 2023
Historique:
received: 11 07 2023
revised: 21 11 2023
accepted: 27 11 2023
medline: 6 12 2023
pubmed: 6 12 2023
entrez: 5 12 2023
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

To determine the reproducibility of biomedical systematic review search strategies. A cross-sectional reproducibility study was conducted on a random sample of 100 systematic reviews indexed in MEDLINE in November 2021. The primary outcome measure is the percentage of systematic reviews for which all database searches can be reproduced, operationalized as fulfilling 6 key PRISMA-S reporting guideline items and having all database searches reproduced within 10% of the number of original results. Key reporting guideline items included database name, multi-database searching, full search strategies, limits and restrictions, date(s) of searches, and total records. The 100 systematic review articles contained 453 database searches. Only 22 (4.9%) database searches reported all six PRISMA-S items. Forty-seven (10.4%) database searches could be reproduced within 10% of the number of results from the original search; 6 searches differed by more than 1000% between the originally reported number of results and the reproduction. Only one systematic review article provided the necessary search details to be fully reproducible. Systematic review search reporting is poor. To correct this will require a multi-faceted response from authors, peer reviewers, journal editors, and database providers.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2023.111229 PMID: 38052277
pubmed: 38052277
pii: S0895-4356(23)00319-0
doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2023.111229
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

111229

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Auteurs

Melissa L Rethlefsen (ML)

Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center, University of New Mexico, MSC 09 5100, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001; Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: mlrethlefsen@gmail.com.

Tara J Brigham (TJ)

Library Services-Florida, Mayo Clinic Libraries, Mayo Clinic, 4500 San Pablo Road, Jacksonville, FL 32224.

Carrie Price (C)

Albert S. Cook Library, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD, 21252.

David Moher (D)

Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, The Ottawa Hospital, General Campus, Centre for Practice Changing Research Building, 501 Smyth Road, PO BOX 201B, Ottawa, Ontario, K1H 8L6, Canada.

Lex M Bouter (LM)

Department of Epidemiology and Data Science, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1089a, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Jamie J Kirkham (JJ)

Centre for Biostatistics, The University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK.

Sara Schroter (S)

BMJ, BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JR, United Kingdom; Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT.

Maurice P Zeegers (MP)

Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; MBP Holding, Heerlen, the Netherlands.

Classifications MeSH