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; Università 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: Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group (2009) Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Med 6(7): e1000097. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097
PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-06-07-moher.pdf
Accompanying "Explanation and Elaboration" paper:
Competing Interests: MC's employment is as Director of the UK Cochrane Centre. He is employed by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust on behalf of the Department of Health and the National Institute for Health Research in England. This is a fixed term contract, the renewal of which is dependent upon the value placed upon his work, that of the UK Cochrane Centre, and of The Cochrane Collaboration more widely by the Department of Health. His work involves the conduct of systematic reviews and the support of the conduct and use of systematic reviews. Therefore, work–such as this manuscript–relating to systematic reviews might have an impact on his employment.
Citation: Liberati A, Altman DG, Tetzlaff J, Mulrow C, Gøtzsche PC, et al. (2009) The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration. PLoS Med 6(7): e1000100
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000100
PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-06-07-liberati.pdf
CONTACTS:
David Moher
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Ottawa Methods Centre
501 Smyth Road
Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8L6
Canada
+1 613-737-8899, 79424
+1 613-739-6266 (fax)
dmoher@ohri.ca
Alessandro Liberati
University of Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena
and Italian Cochrane Centre, Istituto Mario Negri, Milan
Italy
+39 335 605 8828
alesslib@mailbase.it
Isabella Bordogna
Press Officer
Italian Cochrane Centre,
Istituto Mario Negri,
Milan
Italy
bordogna@marionegri.it
About PLoS Medicine
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