Moher and colleagues introduce PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
Reviews and Meta-Analyses), an update of the QUOROM guidelines for reporting systematic …

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have become increasingly important in health care.
Clinicians read them to keep up to date with their field, 1, 2 and they are often used as a …

Systematic reviews should build on a protocol that describes the rationale, hypothesis, and
planned methods of the review; few reviews report whether a protocol exists. Detailed, well-…

The number of published systematic reviews of studies of healthcare interventions has
increased rapidly and these are used extensively for clinical and policy decisions. Systematic …

Background To comprehend the results of diagnostic accuracy studies, readers must understand
the design, conduct, analysis, and results of such studies. That goal can be achieved …

Funnel plots, and tests for funnel plot asymmetry, have been widely used to examine bias in
the results of meta-analyses. Funnel plot asymmetry should not be equated with publication …

THE RANDOMIZED controlled trial (RCT), more than any other methodology, can have a
powerful and immediate impact on patient care. Ideally, the report of such an evaluation needs …

Incomplete reporting has been identified as a major source of avoidable waste in biomedical
research. Essential information is often not provided in study reports, impeding the …

ObjectiveBecause of the pressure for timely, informed decisions in public health and clinical
practice and the explosion of information in the scientific literature, research results must be …

The quality of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy is less than optimal. Complete and
accurate reporting is necessary to enable readers to assess the potential for bias in the …