Methodologists and Their Methods

OBJECTIVES: To assess the extent to which abstracts of methodological research, initially presented at meetings on systematic reviews, have gone on to be published as full articles. METHODS: Full publication was assessed in three ways: a search was carried out of The Cochrane Library; a search was conducted using MEDLINE; and a questionnaire was sent to the contact author of each abstract. RESULTS: Approximately half of the abstracts had not been, or were unlikely ever to be, published in full. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of full publication of abstracts related to the methodology of systematic reviews seems similar to that for randomized trials.