Research Synthesis Methods

Article	Citations
Language inclusion in ecological systematic reviews and maps: Barriers and perspectives	246
Effect modification and non-collapsibility together may lead to conflicting treatment decisions: A review of marginal and conditional estimands and recommendations for decision-making	215
Comment on a review of methods to assess publication and other reporting biases in meta‐analysis	138
Impact of searching clinical trials registers in systematic reviews of pharmaceutical and non‐pharmaceutical interventions: Reanalysis of meta‐analyses	106
Adherence to conflicts of interest policy in Cochrane reviews where authors are also editorial board members: A cross‐sectional analysis	102
Evaluation of the interim Cochrane rapid review methods guidance—A mixed‐methods study on the understanding of and adherence to the guidance	75
Automated data analysis of unstructured grey literature in health research: A mapping review	58
Estimating the reference interval from a fixed effects meta‐analysis	53
Issue Information	50
A framework to characterise the reproducibility of meta‐analysis results with its application to direct oral anticoagulants in the acute treatment of venous thromboembolism	49
Accuracy and precision of fixed and random effects in meta‐analyses of randomized control trials for continuous outcomes	47
Issue Information	37
Combining meta‐analysis with multiple imputation for one‐step, privacy‐protecting estimation of causal treatment effects in multi‐site studies	34
Advice for improving the reproducibility of data extraction in meta‐analysis	31
Meta‐analyses of partial correlations are biased: Detection and solutions	30
What are the best methods for rapid reviews of the research evidence? A systematic review of reviews and primary studies	30
Rare events meta‐analysis using the Bayesian beta‐binomial model	30
Facilitating open science practices for research syntheses: PreregRS guides preregistration	27
‘Twenty years of network meta‐analysis: Continuing controversies and recent developments’: A health technology assessment perspective	27
The age of abundant scholarly information and its synthesis– A time when ‘just google it’ is no longer enough	26
A mapping exercise using automated techniques to develop a search strategy to identify systematic review tools	25
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Response to Kim et al. “When conducting a systematic review, can one trade search efficiency for potential publication bias?”	21
A search of only four key databases would identify most randomized controlled trials of acupuncture: A meta‐epidemiological study	21
Kenward‐Roger–type corrections for inference methods of network meta‐analysis and meta‐regression	21

Assessment of key characteristics, methodology, and effect size measures used in meta‐analysis of human‐health‐related animal studies	19
Combining estimators in interlaboratory studies and meta‐analyses	18
Additional considerations and response to ‘graphical representation of overlap for OVErviews (GROOVE tool)’	18
Zero‐ and few‐shot prompting of generative large language models provides weak assessment of risk of bias in clinical trials	17
Development of the individual participant data integrity tool for assessing the integrity of randomised trials using individual participant data	17
Towards the automatic risk of bias assessment on randomized controlled trials: A comparison of RobotReviewer and humans	17
How trace plots help interpret meta‐analysis results	16
Accuracy of conversion formula for effect sizes: A Monte Carlo simulation	16
A framework for synthesizing intervention evidence from multiple sources into a single certainty of evidence rating: Methodological developments from a US National Academies of S	15
Meta‐analyzing partial correlation coefficients using Fisher's z transformation	15
Risk of bias assessment in preclinical literature using natural language processing	15
Comparing methods for handling missing covariates in meta‐regression	15
Including non‐English language articles in systematic reviews: A reflection on processes for identifying low‐cost sources of translation support	15
Case study meta‐analysis in the social sciences. Insights on data quality and reliability from a large‐N case survey	15
Broad versus narrow research questions in evidence synthesis: A parallel to (and plea for) estimands	15
Two‐stage or not two‐stage? That is the question for IPD meta‐analysis projects	14
Reported methodological quality of medical systematic reviews: Development of an assessment tool (ReMarQ) and meta-research study	14
Automated citation searching in systematic review production: A simulation study	13
The impact of continuity correction methods in Cochrane reviews with single‐zero trials with rare events: A meta‐epidemiological study	13
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Reporting of Cochrane systematic review protocols with network meta‐analyses—A scoping review	13
Using clinical trial registries to inform Copas selection model for publication bias in meta‐analysis	13
Issue Information	12
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	12
Network meta‐analysis: Looping back	12
Combining endpoint and change data did not affect the summary standardised mean difference in pairwise and network meta‐analyses: An empirical study in depression	12
Meta‐analysis and partial correlation coefficients: A matter of weights	11
Issue Information	11
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Rapid evidence synthesis approach for limits on the search date: How rapid could it be?	10
On the double‐robustness and semiparametric efficiency of matching‐adjusted indirect comparisons	10
Synthesis of depression outcomes reported on different scales: A comparison of methods for modelling mean differences	10
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A novel robust meta-analysis model using the t distribution for outlier accommodation and detection	10
Correct standard errors can bias meta‐analysis	10
A comprehensive systematic review dataset is a rich resource for training and evaluation of AI systems for title and abstract screening	10
Searchsmart.org: Guiding researchers to the best databases and search systems for systematic reviews and beyond	9
Adjusting for misclassification of an exposure in an individual participant data meta‐analysis	9
Developing prediction models when there are systematically missing predictors in individual patient data meta‐analysis	9
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Graphical evaluation of evidence structure within a component network meta‐analysis	9
Exploring methodological approaches used in network meta‐analysis of psychological interventions: A scoping review	8
Fast‐and‐frugal decision tree for the rapid critical appraisal of systematic reviews	8
Meta‐analyses of phase I dose‐finding studies: Application for the development of protein kinase inhibitors in oncology	8
Applying Bradford Hill to assessing causality in systematic reviews: A transparent approach using process tracing	8
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Uncertain about uncertainty in matching‐adjusted indirect comparisons? A simulation study to compare methods for variance estimation	7
Issue Information	7
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Reverse‐Bayes methods for evidence assessment and research synthesis	7

Network meta analysis to predict the efficacy of an approved treatment in a new indication	7
Issue Information	7
Sensitivity analysis for the interactive effects of internal bias and publication bias in meta‐analyses	7
Issue Information	7
Conducting power analysis for meta‐analysis with dependent effect sizes: Common guidelines and an introduction to the POMADE R package	7
A REML method for the evidence‐splitting model in network meta‐analysis	7
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”	7
PsychOpen CAMA: Publication of community‐augmented meta‐analyses in psychology	7
Retrieving Cochrane reviews is sometimes challenging and their reporting is not always optimal	6
Bayesian meta‐analysis usingSAS PROC BGLIMM	6
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Synthesizing cross‐design evidence and cross‐format data using network meta‐regression	6
Bayesian meta‐analysis for evaluating treatment effectiveness in biomarker subgroups using trials of mixed patient populations	6
Methods for using Bing's AI‐powered search engine for data extraction for a systematic review	6
A comprehensive review and shiny application on the matching‐adjusted indirect comparison	6
Reevaluation of statistically significant meta‐analyses in advanced cancer patients using the Hartung–Knapp method and prediction intervals—A methodological study	6
Methodological considerations for novel approaches to covariate‐adjusted indirect treatment comparisons	6
Exploring the relevance of the effect of geographical location when searching for studies using Google Search	6
Adapting how to use Google Search to identify studies for systematic reviews in view of a recent change to how search results are displayed	6
Bias propagation in network meta‐analysis models	5
Examining how meta‐analytic methods perform in the presence of bias: A simulation study	5
CausalMetaR: An R package for performing causally interpretable meta-analyses	5
In‐depth evaluation of machine learning methods for semi‐automating article screening in a systematic review of mechanistic literature	5
Beyond Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science: An evaluation of the backward and forward citation coverage of 59 databases' citation indices	5
Methods for population adjustment with limited access to individual patient data: A review and simulation study	5
Network meta‐interpolation: Effect modification adjustment in network meta‐analysis using subgroup analyses	5
MA‐cont:pre/post effect size: An interactive tool for the meta‐analysis of continuous outcomes using R Shiny	5
How should we handle predatory journals in evidence synthesis? A descriptive survey‐based cross‐sectional study of evidence synthesis experts	5
CLUSTER searching approach to inform evidence syntheses: A methodological review	5
Estimating interactions and subgroup‐specific treatment effects in meta‐analysis without aggregation bias: A within‐trial framework	5
Graphical Representation of Overlap for OVErviews: GROOVE tool	5
Data extraction for evidence synthesis using a large language model: A proof‐of‐concept study	5
Bayesian sparse modeling to identify high‐risk subgroups in meta‐analysis of safety data	4
Meta‐analysis of prevalence: I2 statistic and how to deal with heterogeneity	4
A critical reflection on computing the sampling variance of the partial correlation coefficient	4
Capturing causal claims: A fine-tuned text mining model for extracting causal sentences from social science papers	4
Can machine learning help accelerate article screening for systematic reviews? Yes, when article separability in embedding space is high	4
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Using artificial intelligence methods for systematic review in health sciences: A systematic review	4
Meta-analysis with Jeffreys priors: Empirical frequentist properties	4
Response to: Briscoe “Exploring the relevance of the effect of geographical location when searching for studies using Google Search”	4
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P‐hacking in meta‐analyses: A formalization and new meta‐analytic methods	3
Retrospective median power, false positive meta‐analysis and large‐scale replication	3
Investigation of bias due to selective inclusion of study effect estimates in meta‐analyses of nutrition research	3
Issue Information	3
Combining meta‐epidemiological study datasets on commercial funding of randomised clinical trials: Database, methods, and descriptive results of the COMFIT study	3
Cumulative meta‐analysis: What works	3
Graphical tools for visualizing the results of network meta‐analysis of multicomponent interventions	3
Why do researchers co‐author evidence syntheses with librarians? A mixed‐methods study	3
Meta‐regression methods to characterize evidence strength using meaningful‐effect percentages conditional on study characteristics	3
Regarding approaches to simulating random‐effects	3
Exact inference for fixed‐effects meta‐analysis of proportions	3
The consequences of neglected confounding and interactions in mixed‐effects meta‐regression: An illustrative example	3
Issue Information	3
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Effect estimates can be accurately calculated with data digitally extracted from interrupted time series graphs	3
How to plan and manage an individual participant data meta‐analysis. An illustrative toolkit	3
Sample size calculation for clinical trials analyzed with the meta‐analytic‐predictive approach	3
Bayesian Federated Inference for regression models based on non-shared medical center data	2
Cluster wild bootstrapping to handle dependent effect sizes in meta‐analysis with a small number of studies	2
A comparison of two models for detecting inconsistency in network meta‐analysis	2
A real‐world evaluation of the implementation of NLP technology in abstract screening of a systematic review	2
Data sharing policies across health research globally: Cross‐sectional meta‐research study	2
Issue Information	2
Lessons learnt: Undertaking rapid reviews on public health and social measures during a global pandemic	2
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Selecting relevant moderators with Bayesian regularized meta‐regression	2
Methodological guidance for rapid reviews in healthcare: A scoping review	2
Meta-analytic rain cloud plots: Improving evidence communication through data visualization design principles	2
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	2
Accounting for time dependency in meta‐analyses of concordance probability estimates	2
Consensus on the definition and assessment of external validity of randomized controlled trials: A Delphi study	2
Searching for medical devices – Practical guidance	2
A new taxonomy was developed for overlap across 'overviews of systematic reviews': A meta‐research study of research waste	2
Reply to “Comment on a review of methods to assess publication and other reporting biases in meta‐analysis”	2
Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects	2
Synthesis of evidence from zero‐events studies: A comparison of one‐stage framework methods	2
Network meta-analysis made simple: A composite likelihood approach	2
Calculating the power of a planned individual participant data meta‐analysis to examine prognostic factor effects for a binary outcome	2

Location‐scale models for meta‐analysis	2
Estimation of heterogeneity variance based on a generalized Q statistic in meta‐analysis of log‐odds‐ratio	2
Meta‐analytic structural equation modeling made easy: A tutorial and web application for one‐stageMASEM	2
Issue Information	2
Bayesian random‐effects meta‐analysis with empirical heterogeneity priors for application in health technology assessment with very few studies	2
Issue Information	2
The confounder matrix: A tool to assess confounding bias in systematic reviews of observational studies of etiology	2
Quantitative bias analysis for unmeasured confounding in unanchored population-adjusted indirect comparisons	2
On the bias of complete‐ and shifting‐case meta‐regressions with missing covariates	1
Scoping review search practices in the social sciences: A scoping review	1
Missingness mechanism messiness in meta‐analysis: A response to “The importance of plausible data‐generating mechanisms in simulation studies”	1
Identifying evidence for five realist reviews in primary health care: A comparison of search methods	1
ccaR: A package for assessing primary study overlap across systematic reviews in overviews	1
Bibliometric study of ‘overviews of systematic reviews’ of health interventions: Evaluation of prevalence, citation and journal impact factor	1
Automation tools to support undertaking scoping reviews	1
Parametric G‐computation for compatible indirect treatment comparisons with limited individual patient data	1
Visualizing the assumptions of network meta‐analysis	1
Impact of trial attrition rates on treatment effect estimates in chronic inflammatory diseases: A meta‐epidemiological study	1
Meta‐analysis of dichotomous and ordinal tests with an imperfect gold standard	1
When conducting a systematic review, can one trade search efficiency for potential publication bias?	1
Robust variance estimation in small meta‐analysis with the standardized mean difference	1
Development and validation of a geographic search filter for MEDLINE (PubMed) to identify studies about Germany	1
Narrative reanalysis: A methodological framework for a new brand of reviews	1
Inclusive critical appraisal of qualitative and quantitative findings in evidence synthesis	1
Validation of large language models (Llama 3 and ChatGPT-4o mini) for title and abstract screening in biomedical systematic reviews	1
Issue Information	1
Combining randomized and non‐randomized data to predict heterogeneous effects of competing treatments	1
A Q statistic with constant weights for assessing heterogeneity in meta‐analysis	1
Causal assessment in evidence synthesis: A methodological review of reviews	1
Paperfetcher: A tool to automate handsearching and citation searching for systematic reviews	1
Enhanced access to recommendations from the Cochrane Handbook for improving authors' judgments about risk of bias: A randomized controlled trial	1
Synthesizing evidence from the earliest studies to support decision‐making: To what extent could the evidence be reliable?	1
Using qualitative comparative analysis as a mixed methods synthesis in systematic mixed studies reviews: Guidance and a worked example	1
Critical appraisal tools used in systematic reviews of in vitro cell culture studies: A methodological study	1
On ratio measures of heterogeneity for meta‐analyses	1
Enhancing recall in automated record screening: A resampling algorithm	1
Feasibility and desirability of screening search results from Google Search exhaustively for systematic reviews: A cross‐case analysis	1
A critical assessment of matching-adjusted indirect comparisons in relation to target populations	1
Response to discussant comments on “NMA, the first 20 years”	1
Population adjusted‐indirect comparisons in health technology assessment: A methodological systematic review	1
The impact of correction methods on rare‐event meta‐analysis	1
Issue Information	1
Twenty years of network meta‐analysis: Continuing controversies and recent developments	1
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Can large language models replace humans in systematic reviews? Evaluating GPT‐4's efficacy in screening and extracting data from peer‐reviewed and grey literature in multiple languages	1
Considerations for conducting systematic reviews: A follow‐up study to evaluate the performance of various automated methods for reference de‐duplication	1
Methods for information-sharing in network meta-analysis: Implications for inference and policy	1
Subsequent full publication of qualitative studies presented at United Kingdom Royal College of Nursing Research Conference 2015 and 2016: A follow‐up study	1
Response to: ‘Additional considerations and response to Graphical Representation of Overlap for OVErviews (GROOVE tool)”	1
Efficient searching for NICE public health guidelines: Would using fewer sources still find the evidence?	1
Double arcsine transform not appropriate for meta‐analysis	1
Evaluation of statistical methods used to meta‐analyse results from interrupted time series studies: A simulation study	1
metamedian: An R package for meta‐analyzing studies reporting medians	1
Machine learning for identifying randomised controlled trials when conducting systematic reviews: Development and evaluation of its impact on practice	1