Dissemination bias in systematic reviews of animal research: a systematic review

Ref ID 555
First Author K. F. Mueller
Journal PLOS ONE
Year Of Publishing 2014
URL https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116016
Keywords Animal studies
Publication bias
Heterogeneity
Pre-specification
Low reporting quality
Low methodological quality
Problem(s) Low reporting or methodological quality (OTHER GUIDANCE)
No quality assessment undertaken or reported
Lack of prespecification in eligibility criteria
Poor consideration of publication bias
Inadequate analysis of heterogeneity
Individual study characteristics not reported sufficiently
Number of systematic reviews included 512
Summary of Findings Only 59% of included systematic reviews clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria; just over half (51%) displayed a list or flow diagram of the included studies; 24% of included reviews did not report how many studies were included. The majority of the included systematic reviews and meta-analyses of animal studies did not assess methodological quality of included studies (71%), or assess heterogeneity (81%), or publication bias (87%).
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