Research Synthesis Methods

Article	Citations
What are the best methods for rapid reviews of the research evidence? A systematic review of reviews and primary studies	360
Lord’s Paradox and two network meta-analysis models	316
Reported methodological quality of medical systematic reviews: Development of an assessment tool (ReMarQ) and meta-research study	170
Facilitating open science practices for research syntheses: PreregRS guides preregistration	143
Towards the automatic risk of bias assessment on randomized controlled trials: A comparison of RobotReviewer and humans	140
An investigation of the impact of using contrast- and arm-synthesis models for network meta-analysis	123
Accuracy of conversion formula for effect sizes: A Monte Carlo simulation	116
Meta‐analyses of partial correlations are biased: Detection and solutions	92
Advice for improving the reproducibility of data extraction in meta‐analysis	78
Assessment of key characteristics, methodology, and effect size measures used in meta‐analysis of human‐health‐related animal studies	74
A mapping exercise using automated techniques to develop a search strategy to identify systematic review tools	69
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Synthesis of depression outcomes reported on different scales: A comparison of methods for modelling mean differences	48
Authors’ reply: Continuity corrections with Mantel–Haenszel estimators in Cochrane reviews	36
Network meta analysis to predict the efficacy of an approved treatment in a new indication	35
Fast‐and‐frugal decision tree for the rapid critical appraisal of systematic reviews	34
Exploring graphical approaches to assess the impact of an additional trial on a decision model via updated meta-analysis	33
Evaluation of semi-automated record screening methods for systematic reviews of prognosis studies and intervention studies	32
Correct standard errors can bias meta‐analysis	31
CausalMetaR: An R package for performing causally interpretable meta-analyses	30
Capturing causal claims: A fine-tuned text mining model for extracting causal sentences from social science papers	27
Incorporating the possibility of cure into network meta-analyses: A case study from resected Stage III/IV melanoma	26
Estimands and their implications for evidence synthesis for oncology: A simulation study of treatment switching in meta-analysis	26
Exploring the methodological quality and risk of bias in 200 systematic reviews: A comparative study of ROBIS and AMSTAR-2 tools	24

A comprehensive systematic review dataset is a rich resource for training and evaluation of AI systems for title and abstract screening	24
Retrieving Cochrane reviews is sometimes challenging and their reporting is not always optimal	24
Reporting of Cochrane systematic review protocols with network meta‐analyses—A scoping review	23
Bias propagation in network meta‐analysis models	23
Calculating the power of a planned individual participant data meta‐analysis to examine prognostic factor effects for a binary outcome	22
Data extraction for evidence synthesis using a large language model: A proof‐of‐concept study	22
Regarding approaches to simulating random‐effects	22
Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects	21
Issue Information	21
Sensitivity analysis for reporting bias on the time-dependent summary receiver operating characteristics curve in meta-analysis of prognosis studies with time-to-event outcomes	20
Graphical tools for visualizing the results of network meta‐analysis of multicomponent interventions	19
Issue Information	19
Bayesian Federated Inference for regression models based on non-shared medical center data	19
How to plan and manage an individual participant data meta‐analysis. An illustrative toolkit	19
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Evaluation of statistical methods used to meta‐analyse results from interrupted time series studies: A simulation study	18
Population adjusted‐indirect comparisons in health technology assessment: A methodological systematic review	18
Validation of large language models (Llama 3 and ChatGPT-4o mini) for title and abstract screening in biomedical systematic reviews	17
Missingness mechanism messiness in meta‐analysis: A response to “The importance of plausible data‐generating mechanisms in simulation studies”	16
Double arcsine transform not appropriate for meta‐analysis	16
Combining search filters for randomized controlled trials with the Cochrane RCT Classifier in Covidence: a methodological validation study	16
Parametric G‐computation for compatible indirect treatment comparisons with limited individual patient data	15
Six ways to handle dependent effect sizes in meta-analytic structural equation modeling: Is there a gold standard?	15
Inclusive critical appraisal of qualitative and quantitative findings in evidence synthesis	15
Using qualitative comparative analysis as a mixed methods synthesis in systematic mixed studies reviews: Guidance and a worked example	15
Impact of trial attrition rates on treatment effect estimates in chronic inflammatory diseases: A meta‐epidemiological study	15
Critical appraisal tools used in systematic reviews of in vitro cell culture studies: A methodological study	15
Causally interpretable meta‐analysis: Clearly defined causal effects and two case studies	14
Twenty years of network meta‐analysis: Continuing controversies and recent developments	14
RIMeta: An R shiny tool for estimating the reference interval from a meta‐analysis	13
A semiparametric approach for meta‐analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies with multiple cut‐offs	12
A practical guide to evaluating sensitivity of literature search strings for systematic reviews using relative recall	12
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Crowdsourcing the identification of studies for COVID‐19‐related Cochrane Rapid Reviews	11
Issue Information	11
Pitfalls in choosing data examples for methodological work: Bayesian approaches to a fixed effects meta‐analysis of zinc lozenges for the common cold	11
Issue Information	10
A re‐analysis of about 60,000 sparse data meta‐analyses suggests that using an adequate method for pooling matters	10
Reduce, reuse, recycle: Introducing MetaPipeX, a framework for analyses of multi‐lab data	10
Using systems perspectives in evidence synthesis: A methodological mapping review	10
Appropriateness of conducting and reporting random‐effects meta‐analysis in oncology	10
Commercial funding and estimated intervention effects in randomized clinical trials: Systematic review of meta‐epidemiological studies	10
Accuracy and precision of fixed and random effects in meta‐analyses of randomized control trials for continuous outcomes	9
An evaluation of the performance of stopping rules in AI‐aided screening for psychological meta‐analytical research	9
Tipping point analysis in network meta-analysis	9
Combining meta‐analysis with multiple imputation for one‐step, privacy‐protecting estimation of causal treatment effects in multi‐site studies	9
Development of a search filter to retrieve reports of interrupted time series studies from MEDLINE and PubMed	9
Assessing risk of bias of cohort studies with large language models	9
Continuity corrections with Mantel–Haenszel estimators in Cochrane reviews	9

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Meta‐analyses of phase I dose‐finding studies: Application for the development of protein kinase inhibitors in oncology	8
Exploring methodological approaches used in network meta‐analysis of psychological interventions: A scoping review	8
Issue Information	8
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StudyTypeTeller—Large language models to automatically classify research study types for systematic reviews	8
Rare events meta‐analysis using the Bayesian beta‐binomial model	8
Network meta‐analysis: Looping back	8
A novel robust meta-analysis model using the t distribution for outlier accommodation and detection	8
Adjusting for misclassification of an exposure in an individual participant data meta‐analysis	8
Issue Information	7
Reverse‐Bayes methods for evidence assessment and research synthesis	7
Estimating interactions and subgroup‐specific treatment effects in meta‐analysis without aggregation bias: A within‐trial framework	7
Consensus on the definition and assessment of external validity of randomized controlled trials: A Delphi study	7
Treatment recommendations based on network meta-analysis: Rules for risk-averse decision-makers	7
Methods for using Bing's AI‐powered search engine for data extraction for a systematic review	7
How should we handle predatory journals in evidence synthesis? A descriptive survey‐based cross‐sectional study of evidence synthesis experts	7
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A critical reflection on computing the sampling variance of the partial correlation coefficient	7
Network meta-analysis made simple: A composite likelihood approach	7
Methodological considerations for novel approaches to covariate‐adjusted indirect treatment comparisons	7
Graphical Representation of Overlap for OVErviews: GROOVE tool	7
Searchsmart.org: Guiding researchers to the best databases and search systems for systematic reviews and beyond	7
Sample size calculation for clinical trials analyzed with the meta‐analytic‐predictive approach	7
On the bias of complete‐ and shifting‐case meta‐regressions with missing covariates	6
Development and validation of a geographic search filter for MEDLINE (PubMed) to identify studies about Germany	6
metamedian: An R package for meta‐analyzing studies reporting medians	6
Scoping review search practices in the social sciences: A scoping review	6
Subsequent full publication of qualitative studies presented at United Kingdom Royal College of Nursing Research Conference 2015 and 2016: A follow‐up study	6
Robust variance estimation in small meta‐analysis with the standardized mean difference	6
Meta‐analysis of dichotomous and ordinal tests with an imperfect gold standard	6
Machine learning for identifying randomised controlled trials when conducting systematic reviews: Development and evaluation of its impact on practice	6
When conducting a systematic review, can one trade search efficiency for potential publication bias?	6
ccaR: A package for assessing primary study overlap across systematic reviews in overviews	6
Citationchaser: A tool for transparent and efficient forward and backward citation chasing in systematic searching	6
Issue Information	5
Assessment of temporal instability in the applied ecology and conservation evidence base	5
Evolving use of the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool in biomedical systematic reviews	5
Correction to “Network Meta‐Interpolation: Effect modification adjustment in network meta‐analysis using subgroup analyses”	5
A tutorial on aggregating evidence from conceptual replication studies using the product Bayes factor	5
The importance of plausible data‐generating mechanisms in simulation studies: A response to ‘Comparing methods for handling missing covariates in meta‐regression’ by Lee and Beretvas (doi: 10.1002/jrs	5
Ten practices for successful study coding in research syntheses: Developing coding manuals and coding forms	5
Two decades of network meta‐analysis: Roadmap to their applications and challenges	5
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Improved methods to construct prediction intervals for network meta‐analysis	5
A framework to characterise the reproducibility of meta‐analysis results with its application to direct oral anticoagulants in the acute treatment of venous thromboembolism	4
Avoiding common mistakes in meta‐analysis: Understanding the distinct roles of Q, I‐squared, tau‐squared, and the prediction interval in reporting heterogeneity	4
Advancing unanchored simulated treatment comparisons: A novel implementation and simulation study	4
Visualization toolkits for enriching meta-analyses through evidence maps, bibliometrics, and alternative impact metrics	4
Evaluation of the interim Cochrane rapid review methods guidance—A mixed‐methods study on the understanding of and adherence to the guidance	4
Meta-analysis with Jeffreys priors: Empirical frequentist properties	4
Uncertain about uncertainty in matching‐adjusted indirect comparisons? A simulation study to compare methods for variance estimation	4
‘Twenty years of network meta‐analysis: Continuing controversies and recent developments’: A health technology assessment perspective	4
Making sense of conducting a critical interpretive synthesis: A scoping review	4
Calculating the power of a planned individual participant data meta‐analysis of randomised trials to examine a treatment‐covariate interaction with a time‐to‐event outcome	4
Two‐stage or not two‐stage? That is the question for IPD meta‐analysis projects	4
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Developing prediction models when there are systematically missing predictors in individual patient data meta‐analysis	4
Methods of multi-indication meta-analysis for health technology assessment: A simulation study	4
Combining estimators in interlaboratory studies and meta‐analyses	4
Footprint of publication selection bias on meta‐analyses in medicine, environmental sciences, psychology, and economics	4
Risk of bias assessment in preclinical literature using natural language processing	4
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Comparing methods for handling missing covariates in meta‐regression	4
A comprehensive review and shiny application on the matching‐adjusted indirect comparison	4
Response to Hemilä and Chalker's “Pitfalls in choosing data examples for methodological work: Bayesian approaches to a fixed effects meta‐analysis of zinc lozenges for the common cold”	4
Simple imputation method for meta-analysis of survival rates when precision information is missing	3
A comparison of two models for detecting inconsistency in network meta‐analysis	3
Why do researchers co‐author evidence syntheses with librarians? A mixed‐methods study	3
Synthesizing evidence from the earliest studies to support decision‐making: To what extent could the evidence be reliable?	3
A new taxonomy was developed for overlap across 'overviews of systematic reviews': A meta‐research study of research waste	3
Issue Information	3
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Bayesian approaches to fixed effects meta‐analysis	3
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Investigation of bias due to selective inclusion of study effect estimates in meta‐analyses of nutrition research	3
Meta‐analysis of prevalence: I2 statistic and how to deal with heterogeneity	3
Estimation of heterogeneity variance based on a generalized Q statistic in meta‐analysis of log‐odds‐ratio	3
Feasibility and desirability of screening search results from Google Search exhaustively for systematic reviews: A cross‐case analysis	3
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The use of fixed study main effects in arm‐based network meta‐analysis	3
Key concepts and reporting recommendations for mapping reviews: A scoping review of 68 guidance and methodological studies	3
Bayesian random‐effects meta‐analysis with empirical heterogeneity priors for application in health technology assessment with very few studies	3
metaConvert: an automatic suite for estimation of 11 different effect size measures and flexible conversion across them	3
In‐depth evaluation of machine learning methods for semi‐automating article screening in a systematic review of mechanistic literature	3
Response to: ‘Additional considerations and response to Graphical Representation of Overlap for OVErviews (GROOVE tool)”	3
Paperfetcher: A tool to automate handsearching and citation searching for systematic reviews	3
Translating systematic searches in the APA PsycInfo database from Ovid to EBSCOhost: A tutorial based on a filter translation	3
The application of ROBINS-I guidance in systematic reviews of non-randomised studies: A descriptive study	3
Meta‐analyzing partial correlation coefficients using Fisher's z transformation	2
An open competition involving thousands of competitors failed to construct useful abstract classifiers for new diagnostic test accuracy systematic reviews	2
Bayesian pairwise meta‐analysis of time‐to‐event outcomes in the presence of non‐proportional hazards: A simulation study of flexible parametric, piecewise exponential and fractional polynomial models	2
Automating the data extraction process for systematic reviews using GPT-4o and o3	2
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metaCOVID: A web‐application for living meta‐analyses of COVID‐19 trials	2
Language inclusion in ecological systematic reviews and maps: Barriers and perspectives	2
Generalizable and scalable multistage biomedical concept normalization leveraging large language models	2
What happens to qualitative studies initially presented as conference abstracts: A survey among study authors	2
A non‐parametric approach for jointly combining evidence on progression free and overall survival time in network meta‐analysis	2
What can we learn from 1,000 meta-analyses across 10 different disciplines?	2
Limits in the search date for rapid reviews of diagnostic test accuracy studies	2
How trace plots help interpret meta‐analysis results	2
Identifying and managing problematic trials: A research integrity assessment tool for randomized controlled trials in evidence synthesis	2
ZIBGLMM: Zero-inflated bivariate generalized linear mixed model for meta-analysis with double-zero-event studies	2
Robust Bayesian meta‐analysis: Model‐averaging across complementary publication bias adjustment methods	2
Identifying unreported links between ClinicalTrials.gov trial registrations and their published results	2
Automated citation searching in systematic review production: A simulation study	2
Examining how meta‐analytic methods perform	2
Zero‐ and few‐shot prompting of generative large language models provides weak assessment of risk of bias in clinical trials	2
Estimating pairwise overlap in umbrella reviews: Considerations for using the corrected covered area (CCA) index methodology	2
Effect modification and non-collapsibility together may lead to conflicting treatment decisions: A review of marginal and conditional estimands and recommendations for decision-making	2
Predatory journals and their practices present a conundrum for systematic reviewers and evidence synthesisers of health research: A qualitative descriptive study	2
Development of the individual participant data integrity tool for assessing the integrity of randomised trials using individual participant data	2
TheCONSENSYSapproach: An instrument to supportCONtextual SENsitivityinSYStematicreviews	2