Recommendations to conduct and report systematic reviews in medical literature: a scoping review

• Autor(a) principal: Penedones, Ana
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Alves, Carlos, Batel-Marques, Francisco
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/106833; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-019-0870-1
• topic: Review literature as topic; Epidemiology; Evidence-based medicine; Humans; Evidence-Based Medicine; Systematic Reviews as Topic

Background: This scoping review aims to identify, review and characterize the published recommendations to conduct and/or to report a systematic review in medical interventions area. Methods: A search was carried out in PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases, using systematic reviews search filters. The search comprises all recommendations to conduct and/or report a systematic review. Data on methods were extracted from each recommendation. A descriptive analysis was performed. Results: Eighty-three recommendations were identified. Approximately 60% of retrieved references were published in the last 6 years. Recommendations to both conduct and report a systematic review were issued in 47% studies. The guidance presented in each recommendation to conduct and/ or report a systematic review varied. Almost 96% of the recommendations offer guidance on systematic review methods section. The need and time for updating was only recommended in 29% of recommendations. Forty percent of recommendations endorsed their methods to any subject related to medical interventions. Half of the studies did not specify the design of studies to be included in a systematic review. Conclusions: Several recommendations to conduct and/or report a systematic review were published and offered different guidance. Further research on the impact of such heterogeneity can improve systematic reviews quality.