The prevalence of and factors associated with inclusion of non-English language studies in Campbell systematic reviews: a survey and meta-epidemiological study

Ref ID 702
First Author L. Neimann Rasmussen
Journal SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS
Year Of Publishing 2018
URL https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13643-018-0786-6
Keywords • Campbell
• Author
• Psychology
• Policy
• Social care
• Equity
• Language
Problem(s) • Language restriction
• Failure to consider equity, different socioeconomic groups or disadvantaged populations
Number of systematic reviews included 123
Summary of Findings 87% of included 123 systematic reviews did not exclude non-English studies a priori and of these, only 15% included non-English language studies. One factor that significantly correlated with the number of included non-English studies across all models was the number of countries in which the members of the review team work. There was a dominance of researchers from English-speaking countries (52.9%) and review teams consisting only of team members from these countries (65.9%). The most frequently mentioned challenge to including non-English studies was a lack of resources (funding and time) followed by a lack of language resources (e.g. professional translators).
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? N/A
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? Yes