DiagnosticsImproving The Science Of Systematic Reviews: Introducing The "PRISMA" Statement (Preferred Reporting Items For Systematic Reviews And Meta-Analyses)
David Moher, from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; University of
Ottawa, and an international consortium of contributors publish the PRISMA
guidelines: a set of tools developed to help authors improve the reporting
of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. In order to ensure wide
distribution, the guidelines are being published simultaneously in several
medical journals: Annals of Internal Medicine, the BMJ, Journal of
Clinical
Epidemiology, Open Medicine, and PLoS Medicine.
Systematic reviews involve the use of explicit methods to answer a clearly
defined research question through collection of existing data from the
research literature, and are widely adopted within healthcare. These types
of studies frequently inform clinical guidelines, clinical practice, and
the direction of future research. However, existing evidence suggests that
systematic reviews and meta-analyses are typically poorly done and poorly
reported.
The PRISMA Statement uses recent advances in the science of systematic
reviews to update a previous set of guidelines, the QUOROM Statement
(QUality
Of Reporting Of Metaanalyses), originally published in 1999. The updated
guidelines set out tools for researchers to transparently and accurately
report their systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Straightforward
checklist and flow diagram templates are provided for authors of such
studies to
complete and include in the papers they submit for publication.
An accompanying "Explanation and Elaboration" paper (Liberati A et al)
includes detailed examples guiding authors on best practice in reporting,
and justifies each element of the guidelines.
PLoS Medicine endorses the PRISMA statement, and encourages other journals
to do the same.
Funding:
PRISMA was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research;
Universitç di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy; Cancer Research UK; Clinical
Evidence BMJ Knowledge; the Cochrane Collaboration; and GlaxoSmithKline,
Canada. Alessandro Liberati is funded, in part, through grants of the
Italian
Ministry of University (COFIN - PRIN 2002 prot. 2002061749 and COFIN -
PRIN 2006 prot. 2006062298). Douglas Altman is funded by Cancer Research
UK.
David Moher is funded by a University of Ottawa Research Chair. None of
the sponsors had any involvement in the planning, execution, or write-up
of
the PRISMA documents. Additionally, no funder played a role in drafting
the manuscript.
The PRISMA Statement paper:
Competing Interests:
The authors have declared no competing interests
exist.
Citation:
"Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement."
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group (2009)
PLoS Med 6(7): e1000097. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097
PLoS Medicine