Reporting standards for literature searches and report inclusion criteria: making research syntheses more transparent and easy to replicate.
Abstract
A complete description of the literature search, including the criteria used for the
inclusion of reports after they have been located, used in a research synthesis or
meta-analysis is critical if subsequent researchers are to accurately evaluate and
reproduce a synthesis' methods and results. Based on previous guidelines and new suggestions,
we present a set of focused and detailed standards for reporting the methods used
in a literature search. The guidelines cover five search strategies: reference database
searches, journal and bibliography searches, searches of the reference lists of reports,
citation searches, and direct contact searches. First, we bring together all the unique
recommendations made in existing guidelines for research synthesis. Second, we identify
gaps in reporting standards for search strategies. Third, we address these gaps by
providing new reporting recommendations. Our hope is to facilitate successful evaluation
and replication of research synthesis results.
Type
Journal articleSubject
guidelinesliterature search
meta‐analysis
research synthesis
Biostatistics
Databases as Topic
Guidelines as Topic
Humans
Information Storage and Retrieval
Meta-Analysis as Topic
Periodicals as Topic
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14228Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1002/jrsm.1127Publication Info
Atkinson, Kayla M; Koenka, Alison C; Sanchez, Carmen E; Moshontz, Hannah; & Cooper,
Harris (2015). Reporting standards for literature searches and report inclusion criteria: making
research syntheses more transparent and easy to replicate. Res Synth Methods, 6(1). pp. 87-95. 10.1002/jrsm.1127. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14228.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Harris M. Cooper
Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience
Harris Cooper received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University
of Connecticut in 1975. From 1977 to 2003, he was on the faculty at the University
of Missouri. In 2003, he moved to Duke University where he is now Hugo L. Blomquist
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience. Dr. Cooper
has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, the University of Oregon, and
the Russell Sage Fou
Hannah Moshontz
Research Assistant, Ph D Student
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