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Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy

INTRODUCTION: Many diagnostic accuracy studies are never reported in full in a peer‐reviewed journal. Searching for unpublished studies may avoid bias due to selective publication, enrich the power of systematic reviews, and thereby help to reduce research waste. We assessed searching practices amon...

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Autores principales: Korevaar, Daniël A., Salameh, Jean‐Paul, Vali, Yasaman, Cohen, Jérémie F., McInnes, Matthew D. F., Spijker, René, Bossuyt, Patrick M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7317757/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31981399
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1389
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author Korevaar, Daniël A.
Salameh, Jean‐Paul
Vali, Yasaman
Cohen, Jérémie F.
McInnes, Matthew D. F.
Spijker, René
Bossuyt, Patrick M.
author_facet Korevaar, Daniël A.
Salameh, Jean‐Paul
Vali, Yasaman
Cohen, Jérémie F.
McInnes, Matthew D. F.
Spijker, René
Bossuyt, Patrick M.
author_sort Korevaar, Daniël A.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Many diagnostic accuracy studies are never reported in full in a peer‐reviewed journal. Searching for unpublished studies may avoid bias due to selective publication, enrich the power of systematic reviews, and thereby help to reduce research waste. We assessed searching practices among recent systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: We extracted data from 100 non‐Cochrane systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy indexed in MEDLINE and published between October 2017 and January 2018 and from all 100 Cochrane systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy published by December 2018, irrespective of whether meta‐analysis had been performed. RESULTS: Non‐Cochrane and Cochrane reviews searched a median of 4 (IQR 3‐5) and 6 (IQR 5‐9) databases, respectively; most often MEDLINE/PubMed (n = 100 and n = 100) and EMBASE (n = 81 and n = 100). Additional efforts to identify studies beyond searching bibliographic databases were performed in 76 and 98 reviews, most often through screening reference lists (n = 71 and n = 96), review/guideline articles (n = 18 and n = 52), or citing articles (n = 3 and n = 42). Specific sources of unpublished studies were searched in 22 and 68 reviews, for example, conference proceedings (n = 4 and n = 18), databases only containing conference abstracts (n = 2 and n = 33), or trial registries (n = 12 and n = 39). At least one unpublished study was included in 17 and 23 reviews. Overall, 39 of 2082 studies (1.9%) included in non‐Cochrane reviews were unpublished, and 64 of 2780 studies (2.3%) in Cochrane reviews, most often conference abstracts (97/103). CONCLUSION: Searching practices vary considerably across systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy. Unpublished studies are a minimal fraction of the evidence included in recent reviews.
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spelling pubmed-73177572020-06-29 Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy Korevaar, Daniël A. Salameh, Jean‐Paul Vali, Yasaman Cohen, Jérémie F. McInnes, Matthew D. F. Spijker, René Bossuyt, Patrick M. Res Synth Methods Research Articles INTRODUCTION: Many diagnostic accuracy studies are never reported in full in a peer‐reviewed journal. Searching for unpublished studies may avoid bias due to selective publication, enrich the power of systematic reviews, and thereby help to reduce research waste. We assessed searching practices among recent systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: We extracted data from 100 non‐Cochrane systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy indexed in MEDLINE and published between October 2017 and January 2018 and from all 100 Cochrane systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy published by December 2018, irrespective of whether meta‐analysis had been performed. RESULTS: Non‐Cochrane and Cochrane reviews searched a median of 4 (IQR 3‐5) and 6 (IQR 5‐9) databases, respectively; most often MEDLINE/PubMed (n = 100 and n = 100) and EMBASE (n = 81 and n = 100). Additional efforts to identify studies beyond searching bibliographic databases were performed in 76 and 98 reviews, most often through screening reference lists (n = 71 and n = 96), review/guideline articles (n = 18 and n = 52), or citing articles (n = 3 and n = 42). Specific sources of unpublished studies were searched in 22 and 68 reviews, for example, conference proceedings (n = 4 and n = 18), databases only containing conference abstracts (n = 2 and n = 33), or trial registries (n = 12 and n = 39). At least one unpublished study was included in 17 and 23 reviews. Overall, 39 of 2082 studies (1.9%) included in non‐Cochrane reviews were unpublished, and 64 of 2780 studies (2.3%) in Cochrane reviews, most often conference abstracts (97/103). CONCLUSION: Searching practices vary considerably across systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy. Unpublished studies are a minimal fraction of the evidence included in recent reviews. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-02-05 2020-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7317757/ /pubmed/31981399 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1389 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Research Synthesis Methods published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Korevaar, Daniël A.
Salameh, Jean‐Paul
Vali, Yasaman
Cohen, Jérémie F.
McInnes, Matthew D. F.
Spijker, René
Bossuyt, Patrick M.
Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
title Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
title_full Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
title_fullStr Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
title_full_unstemmed Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
title_short Searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
title_sort searching practices and inclusion of unpublished studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7317757/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31981399
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1389
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