Systematic reviews published in emergency medicine journals do not routinely search clinical trials registries: a cross-sectional analysis

Ref ID 189
First Author L. G. Keil
Journal ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2015
URL https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408207/pdf/nihms633337.pdf
Keywords • Emergency medicine
• Searching
• Grey literature
Problem(s) • Grey literature excluded
• Lack of supplementary searches beyond databases
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country United States
Aim To assess whether systematic reviews published in the 6 highest-impact emergency medicine journals between January 1 and December 31, 2013 searched a clinical trials registry and whether this search identified relevant unpublished studies.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Only eight (20%) of the 41included systematic reviews of emergency medicine searched a clinical trials registry. For 4 of these 8 reviews, the registry search identified at least 1 relevant unpublished study.
Number of systematic reviews included 41
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 191
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description