Zombie reviews taking over the PROSPERO systematic review registry. It’s time to fight back!

Ref ID 732
First Author R. Andrade
Journal BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29021246/
Keywords • Protocols
• Publication bias
• General medical
• Currency
Problem(s) • Unpublished or "zombie" reviews (the file-drawer effect)
Article Type Editorial
Article Subtype Discussion piece
First Author Country Portugal
Aim To assess the number of "zombie reviews" or reviews registered in PROSPERO that have not been updated to reflect completion, current status or publication up to 2016.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Of the 18959 PROSPERO registrations included by the article authors in 2016, only 7% of systematic reviews registered in PROSPERO between 2011 and 2015 had their status updated to 'published'. The authors highlight that abandoned systematic reviews or those that have not been completed remain in PROSPERO indefinitely—as zombie titles—clogging up the registry
Number of systematic reviews included 18959
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 18959
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description