InfoGuides: Evidence Syntheses: Guidelines

Evidence Synthesis Guidelines

JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis 2024 Edition
manual guides authors who wish to conduct systematic and scoping reviews following JBI methodologies. Each chapter is devoted to the synthesis of different types of evidence to address different types of clinical and policy-related questions.

JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist

Publishing Guidelines

Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research EQUATOR Network https://www.equator-network.org/

STROBE STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology Checklist for recommendations to the three main analytical designs that are used in observational research: cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies.

MOOSE Guidelines for Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Observational Studies Checklist contains specifications for reporting of meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology, including background, search strategy, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.

RAMESES Realist And Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards Theory-driven, qualitative and mixed-method approaches to systematic review as an alternative to (or to extend and supplement) conventional Cochrane-style reviews.

Reporting a Search-PRISMA-S

PRISMA for Searching

The PRISMA extension for searching (PRISMA-S) was published in 2021. The checklist includes 16 reporting items, each of which is detailed with exemplar reporting and Rationale. This checklist guides the researcher in how to document the search process in a systematic review.

Here is an example of keyword and MeSH search concepts for a PICO question.

PICO: Do e-cigarettes help current smokers, who have tried to quit before, finally succeed in quitting?
MeSH Terms "Smoking Cessation/methods"[Mesh] OR “Tobacco Use Cessation” [Mesh] OR "Tobacco Use Cessation Products"[Mesh]	Keywords (Title/Abstract) “Smoking cessation” [TI/AB] OR “Nicotine Replacement” [TI/AB] OR “Quit* Smoking”[TI/AB] OR “Stop* Smoking” [TI/AB]
AND	AND
MeSH Terms	Keywords “quit attempt*” [TI/AB]
AND	AND
MeSH Terms “Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems” [Mesh]	Keywords E-cigarette[TI/AB] OR “electronic cigarette”[TI/AB] OR Vape [TI/AB] OR Vaping[TI/AB]

Searching in Systematic Reviews video https://youtu.be/eeg_41Ir3Hw

Search using keywords

Use "" for phrase searching: "smoking cessation"
Use * for truncation: protect* retrieves protect, protects, protection, protecting

“Smoking cessation”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Replacement”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Inhalant”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Nasal Spray”[Title/Abstract] OR “Nicotine Lozenge”[Title/Abstract] OR “nicotine patch”[Title/Abstract] OR “Quit* Smoking”[Title/Abstract] OR “Stop* Smoking”[Title/Abstract]

Search using MeSH Subject Headings

"Smoking Cessation/methods"[Mesh] OR “Tobacco Use Cessation”[Mesh] OR "Tobacco Use Cessation Products"[Mesh]

Tutorial: Introduction: What is MeSH?