Introduction

There exists an extensive body of standards and guidance on conducting evidence syntheses. It is imperative that you utilize the appropriate standards and guidance for your project. Use this page as a resource.

Methodological standards vs reporting standards

It is important to distinguish between methodological standards and reporting standards.

Methodological standards address the design and conduct of an evidence synthesis project.

Reporting standards assist evidence synthesis authors in describing the methodology they used and the results of their synthesis in sufficient detail. 

Standards and guidance for evidence syntheses in the health sciences

  Intervention Diagnostic Prognostic Qualitative or Mixed Methods Prevalence and Incidence Etiology and Risk Measurement Properties Umbrella Reviews Scoping Reviews
Methodological Guidance

Cochrane

JBI

Cochrane

JBI

 Cochrane

Cochrane

JBI

 JBI JBI JBI

Cochrane

JBI

 JBI
Reporting: Protocols PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P PRISMA-P
Reporting: Review PRISMA 2020 PRISMA-DTA PRISMA 2020

eMERGe

ENTREQ

 PRISMA 2020 PRISMA 2020 PRISMA 2020 PRIOR PRISMA-ScR
Reporting: Synthesis without Meta-Analysis SWiM PRISMA-DTA SWiM

eMERGE

ENTREQ

 SWiM SWiM SWiM PRIOR Not applicable
Risk of Bias Assessment

For RCTs: Cochrane's RoB2

For NRSIs: Cochrane's ROBINS-I

 QUADAS-2

Factor review QUIPS

Model review PROBAST

CASP Qualitative Checklist

JBI Checklist for Qualitative Research

 JBI Checklist for Prevalence Studies For NRSIs: Cochrane's ROBINS-I COSMIN Risk of Bias Checklist

AMSTAR-2

ROBIS

 Not required
Overall Level of Evidence Certainty GRADE GRADE adaptation GRADE adaptation

CERQual

ConQual

 GRADE adaptation Risk factors GRADE adaptation

GRADE (for intervention reviews)

Risk factors

 Not applicable

Reproduced from: Kolaski, Logan & Ionnidis, 2023. Please see Table 6.3 (page 22) for additional notes and information.

Reference

Kolaski, K., Logan, L. R., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2023). Guidance to best tools and practices for systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews, 12(1), 96. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02255-9

Standards and guidance for evidence syntheses in non-health disciplines

Environmental research:

  • RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses in environmental research (ROSES)