Lunny Carole, Brennan Sue E, McDonald Steve, McKenzie Joanne E
Australasian Cochrane Centre, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, 549 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia.
Syst Rev. 2016 Jan 6;5:4. doi: 10.1186/s13643-015-0178-0.
Overviews of systematic reviews attempt to systematically retrieve and summarise the results of multiple systematic reviews into a single document. Methods for conducting, interpreting and reporting overviews of reviews are in their infancy. To date, there has been no systematic review or evidence map examining the range of methods for overviews nor of the evidence for using these methods. The objectives of the study are to develop and populate a framework of methods that have or may be used in conducting, interpreting and reporting overviews of systematic reviews of interventions (stage I); create an evidence map of studies that have evaluated these methods (stage II); and identify and describe unique methodological challenges of overviews.
The research will be undertaken in two stages. For both stages, we plan to search methods collections (e.g. Cochrane Methodology Register, Meth4ReSyn library, AHRQ Effective Health Care Program) to identify eligible studies. These searches will be supplemented by searching reference lists and citation searching. Stage I: Methods used in overviews will be identified from articles describing methods for overviews, methods studies examining a cross section/cohort of overviews, guidance documents and commentaries. The identified methods will populate a framework of available methods for conducting an overview. Two reviewers will independently code included studies to develop the framework. Thematic analysis of the coded data will be used to categorise and describe methods. Stage II: Evaluations of the performance of methods will be identified from systematic reviews of methods studies and methods studies. Evaluations will be described and mapped to the framework of methods identified in stage I.
The results of this process will be useful for mapping of methods for overviews of systematic reviews, informing guidance and identifying and prioritising method research in this field.
系统评价概述旨在系统地检索并将多项系统评价的结果汇总到一份文档中。开展、解读和报告评价概述的方法尚处于起步阶段。迄今为止，尚无系统评价或证据图谱来审视评价概述所采用的方法范围，也没有关于使用这些方法的证据的相关研究。本研究的目的是开发并填充一个用于开展、解读和报告干预措施系统评价概述的方法框架（第一阶段）；创建一份对这些方法进行评估的研究的证据图谱（第二阶段）；并识别和描述评价概述独特的方法学挑战。
本研究将分两个阶段进行。对于两个阶段，我们计划检索方法文献库（如Cochrane方法学注册库、Meth4ReSyn库、美国医疗保健研究与质量局有效医疗保健项目）以识别符合条件的研究。这些检索将通过搜索参考文献列表和进行引文检索来补充。第一阶段：从描述评价概述方法的文章、审视评价概述横断面/队列的方法学研究、指南文件和评论中识别用于评价概述的方法。所识别的方法将填充一个用于开展评价概述的可用方法框架。两名评审员将独立对纳入研究进行编码以开发该框架。对编码数据进行主题分析将用于对方法进行分类和描述。第二阶段：从方法学研究的系统评价和方法学研究中识别对方法性能的评估。将对评估进行描述并映射到第一阶段识别的方法框架。
这一过程的结果将有助于绘制系统评价概述的方法图谱，为指南提供信息，并识别该领域的方法学研究并确定其优先级。
