Institute of Emergency Medicine in Split-Dalmatia County, Split, Croatia.
Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia.
Res Synth Methods. 2020 Nov;11(6):884-890. doi: 10.1002/jrsm.1451. Epub 2020 Sep 15.
It is challenging to keep systematic reviews (SR) current and updated. Cochrane designated some of its SRs as "stable," that is, not in need of updating. The issue of stabilizing an SR is an important in research synthesis, because it could help reduce research waste. The aim of this study was to analyze publicly available justifications for stabilizing a Cochrane review, with the ultimate goal of helping to make decisions about whether the update of any SR is warranted.
We analyzed Cochrane reviews labeled as stable in Archie, Cochrane's system for managing the editorial/publishing process. From the "What's new" section of the reviews in the Cochrane Library, we extracted justification for stabilization.
We included 545 Cochrane reviews labeled in Archie as stable on October 28, 2019. The most common of the five reasons for stabilization was that "last search did not identify any potentially relevant studies likely to change conclusions" (N = 99; 18%), followed by "research area no longer active" (N = 86; 16%), "review is or will be superseded" (N = 41; 7.5%), "evidence is conclusive" (N=35; 6.4%), and "intervention no longer in general use" (N = 34; 6.2%). For the 269 (49%) Cochrane reviews, we considered that the justification for stabilization was not clearly described, that is, sufficiently informative.
Cochrane reviews would benefit from more transparency and consistency in publicly available justifications for stabilizing reviews. Further work in this field will help make decisions about the futility of further research and deciding on enough evidence in the field of research synthesis.
保持系统评价（SR）的时效性和更新是具有挑战性的。 Cochrane 将其部分 SR 指定为“稳定”，即无需更新。稳定 SR 的问题在研究综合中很重要，因为它有助于减少研究浪费。本研究的目的是分析可公开获得的稳定 Cochrane 综述的理由，最终目的是帮助做出关于任何 SR 是否需要更新的决策。
我们分析了在 Archie 中标记为稳定的 Cochrane 综述，Archie 是 Cochrane 管理编辑/出版过程的系统。我们从 Cochrane 图书馆中“最新情况”部分的综述中提取稳定的理由。
我们纳入了 2019 年 10 月 28 日在 Archie 中标记为稳定的 545 项 Cochrane 综述。稳定的五个最常见原因之一是“最近的搜索未发现任何可能改变结论的潜在相关研究”（N = 99；18%），其次是“研究领域不再活跃”（N = 86；16%）、“综述即将被取代或已被取代”（N = 41；7.5%）、“证据确凿”（N=35；6.4%）和“干预措施不再普遍使用”（N = 34；6.2%）。对于 269 项（49%）Cochrane 综述，我们认为稳定的理由没有得到明确描述，即不够有信息。
Cochrane 综述将从更透明和一致的公开稳定综述的理由中受益。在该领域的进一步工作将有助于对进一步研究的无效性做出决策，并决定研究综合领域的证据是否充分。
