March 22, 2007PLoS Medicine907 citationsOpen Access
Epidemiology and Reporting Characteristics of Systematic Reviews
Key Points
- Assess the reporting quality and epidemiology of published systematic reviews.
- Analyzed the reporting characteristics and methodological consistency of published systematic reviews.
- Demonstrated that systematic reviews are produced in large quantities but suffer from inconsistent reporting quality.
- Concluded that healthcare readers should not accept systematic review conclusions uncritically without verifying guideline compliance.
Abstract
SRs are now produced in large numbers, and our data suggest that the quality of their reporting is inconsistent. This situation might be improved if more widely agreed upon evidence-based reporting guidelines were endorsed and adhered to by authors and journals. These results substantiate the view that readers should not accept SRs uncritically.
Cite This Study
Moher et al. (2007) studied this question.