Following Cochrane review protocols to completion 10 years later: a retrospective cohort study and author survey

Ref ID 712
First Author E. Runjic
Journal JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.03.006
Keywords • Cochrane
• Protocols
• General medical
• Currency
Problem(s) • Untimely (taking too long) or resource intensive
• Unpublished or "zombie" reviews (the file-drawer effect)
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Croatia
Aim To assess Cochrane review protocols published in 2010, their characteristics, and whether they were published by February 2018. Additionally were surveyed for reasons for nonpublication of protocols to assess factors predicting the time to publication
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings From 576 included Cochrane review protocols, 77.4% were published as a full review and 22.6% were still unpublished in February 2018. Median time from protocol publication to publication of the completed review was 2.78 years. Common reasons for nonpublication were: lack of time to work on the review; topic was out of date because of long Cochrane production process or Cochrane review group rejected the completed reviews and the authors published them elsewhere.
Number of systematic reviews included 576
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 665
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description