Methods and guidance on conducting, reporting, publishing and appraising living systematic reviews: a scoping review protocol

Overview and definitions

This scoping review study will be part of a larger project to develop an extension of the PRISMA 2020 statement for living systematic reviews. To achieve our objectives, we will conduct a scoping review to survey and evaluate existing evidence and literature, especially with regards to the availability of methods papers, evidence gaps and associated primary research gaps.⁶ A framework is illustrating an overview of the methodological plan for this scoping review from the search to the data synthesis (Figure 1). Scoping reviews are particularly useful in the context of emerging evidence and act as a precursor for other topic-related projects.⁶ We will use standard scoping review methodology with the following steps:

Figure 1. Framework on the methodological plan, from search to data synthesis, for this scoping review.

Eligibility criteria

We will include articles that devoted at least two paragraphs to discuss methods or conceptual approaches for how to conduct, report, publish or appraise LSRs. Such articles should ideally include methodological or concept papers describing methods for LSRs, guidance (e.g. handbooks) for undertaking LSRs, issued by organizations that conduct evidence syntheses, and commentaries or editorials that discuss methods for LSR.

We will exclude from our search, LSRs themselves, as well as LSR protocols.

Search methods for identification of studies

We will search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane from 2013 using the OVID interface. The search strategy was developed by a researcher experienced in developing literature search strategies with the help of an information specialist (LH) as part of a larger project to develop an extension of the PRISMA 2020 statement for LSRs.^8,9 The strategy was peer-reviewed by an information specialist (IM) who will also run the search planned for July or August 2021. Please see Box 1 for the complete search strategy.

As for searching the “grey literature”, we will seek existing guidelines and handbooks on LSRs from organizations that conduct evidence syntheses (e.g. Cochrane handbook, Living Evidence network, JBI) using the Lens.org website. Additionally, we will conduct a step-backwards citation approach to identify relevant LSRs handbooks and guidance documents from the reference list of published LSRs. We will also use forward searching, using certain seminal documents (e.g. papers defining LSRs and Cochrane guidance) and track their citations via google scholar.

Article selection

Two authors (CI, AM) will independently and in duplicate screen titles and abstracts. We will use a web-based systematic review software Rayyan (RRID:SCR_017584) for the screening process. To ensure a consistent screening procedure and optimize agreement, we will develop and use a detailed written instruction form. We will then screen for full text assessing eligibility, based on our predefined eligibility criteria. Disagreements and conflicts will be solved by a third author.

Data collection and charting

Two review authors will extract and catalogue the study data on LSR methodological aspects into a standardized and pilot tested data extraction form in Microsoft Excel (RRID:SCR_016137); an open-access alternative is Google Sheets (RRID:SCR_017679). All reviewers will participate in calibration exercises before data abstraction to improve reliability, and the senior investigator will serve as a third independent reviewer for resolving disagreements. The predefined categories of data extraction will be piloted, and we will chart data regarding proposed methods for (i) conducting LSRs, (ii) reporting of LSRs, (iii) publishing and (iv) appraising the quality of LSRs. Even though we extract and classify the data according to these categories, we consider that elements from one category (e.g. conducting LSR) can have an impact on elements from another category (e.g. publishing LSR) and might even overlap. We will specifically extract data on the following items:

Data synthesis

We will collect, summarize and report the extracted study data according to the predefined categories. Therefore, we will first be presenting a table with the extracted methods unique to LSRs classified into the pre-defined categories, along with the contributing sources. Second, we will develop a visual evidence map framework of these methods and map our findings against the existing standard tools (e.g. Cochrane guidance for conducting LSR, PRISMA 2020, AMSTAR 2) to determine differences and suggestions for adaptations. The evidence map and the summary table will be double-checked by a second review author. These systematically obtained findings of the scoping review could be used as basis for the revision of existing guidance and method tools for LSR, such as the PRISMA statement for instance.

Dissemination of information

We plan to disseminate the findings by submitting the resulting scoping review for publication to F1000Research.

Study status

We are currently developing and piloting the data extraction form and the next step will be to run the search and start screening.

Underlying data

No data are associated with this article.