Dear all,
Can PRISMA guidelines be quoted as a tool to guide the methods of a systematic review? I’m increasingly seeing research proposals, protocols and systematic review manuscripts that claim to use PRISMA for their systematic review methods.
e.g. “The systematic review will be carried out in accordance with PRISMA guidelines” or.. “We undertook a systematic review in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines”
Is this OK and are others seeing these statements? I personally feel it would be better to refer to whatever methods guidance was used for undertaking the review e.g. CRDs Handbook, Cochrane Handbook…. I would only mention PRISMA in a protocol
or proposal to show how we plan to report the review. Is anyone else seeing similar references to PRISMA being used for the SR methods and if so do you think it’s fine as a guide to methods, are you concerned that the use of PRISMA isn’t being reported correctly?
Would it worry you if the methods used in a systematic review were based on the PRISMA checklist & statement?
Quick reminder on what PRISMA is from its website:
PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating
randomized trials, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions.
http://www.prisma-statement.org
Thanks for your help,
Judy
Judy Wright
Senior Information Specialist to LIHS and the
NIHR Research Design Service Yorkshire & the Humber
Leeds Institute of Health Sciences
University of Leeds
Charles Thackrah Building
Leeds LS2 9LJ
+44 (0) 113 3430876
Twitter: @jmwleeds @AUHE_Leeds
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