Meta‐epidemiological study on the publication rate of South American countries' systematic reviews of interventions registered in PROSPERO

To assess the publication rate and time from registration to publication of systematic intervention reviews registered in PROSPERO originated from South American countries in 2020. Cross-sectional study. We searched PROSPERO for protocols of systematic reviews of interventions with affiliation in South America during 2020. We randomly extracted 10% and searched databases to identify their publication status. We identified 1361 intervention systematic reviews with South American affiliation registered in PROSPERO during 2020. We assessed a random sample of 10% (n = 135). The publishing rate in indexed journals was 36.9% (n = 41). The median time to publication was 1.6 years (IQR 0.9-2.1). The publication rate of South American PROSPERO registers is low. These findings emphasize the need for further efforts to improve publication rates and increase the visibility of South American research in the global scientific community.