Risk of bias assessments for selective reporting were inadequate in the majority of Cochrane reviews

Ref ID 347
First Author F. Saric
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(18)31135-1/fulltext
Keywords Cochrane
Risk of bias
General medical
Problem(s) Flawed risk of bias undertaken
Weaknesses identified in some Cochrane reviews
Number of systematic reviews included 729
Summary of Findings At least 60% of judgments for risk of selective reporting bias of trials in analysed Cochrane reviews were not in line with the Cochrane Handbook. Few Cochrane authors mentioned the trial protocol as a source of data for assessing selective reporting. Most of the inadequate judgments were made among trials that were judged with low risk of selective reporting bias; more than 90%. In 9% of analysed risk of bias tables, Cochrane authors did not use this risk of bias domain at all.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? Not Applicable
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? Yes