Research Synthesis Methods

Article	Citations
An investigation of the impact of using contrast- and arm-synthesis models for network meta-analysis	195
Lord’s Paradox and two network meta-analysis models	160
How to conduct an individual participant data meta-analysis in response to an emerging pathogen: Lessons learned from Zika and COVID-19	142
Bayesian workflow for bias-adjustment model in meta-analysis	127
Meta-analytic-predictive priors based on a single study	110
Meta‐analyses of partial correlations are biased: Detection and solutions	100
Transforming evidence synthesis: A systematic review of the evolution of automated meta-analysis in the age of AI	81
A mapping exercise using automated techniques to develop a search strategy to identify systematic review tools	77
Advice for improving the reproducibility of data extraction in meta‐analysis	76
Reported methodological quality of medical systematic reviews: Development of an assessment tool (ReMarQ) and meta-research study	67
Towards the automatic risk of bias assessment on randomized controlled trials: A comparison of RobotReviewer and humans	59
Assessment of key characteristics, methodology, and effect size measures used in meta‐analysis of human‐health‐related animal studies	58
What are the best methods for rapid reviews of the research evidence? A systematic review of reviews and primary studies	55
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Synthesis of depression outcomes reported on different scales: A comparison of methods for modelling mean differences	45
Authors’ reply: Continuity corrections with Mantel–Haenszel estimators in Cochrane reviews	41
Network meta analysis to predict the efficacy of an approved treatment in a new indication	40
Exploring graphical approaches to assess the impact of an additional trial on a decision model via updated meta-analysis	40
CausalMetaR: An R package for performing causally interpretable meta-analyses	36
Evaluation of the replicability of systematic reviews with meta-analyses of the effects of health interventions	34
Estimands and their implications for evidence synthesis for oncology: A simulation study of treatment switching in meta-analysis	34
Exploring the methodological quality and risk of bias in 200 systematic reviews: A comparative study of ROBIS and AMSTAR-2 tools	32
Correct standard errors can bias meta‐analysis	32
Evaluation of semi-automated record screening methods for systematic reviews of prognosis studies and intervention studies	30
A comprehensive systematic review dataset is a rich resource for training and evaluation of AI systems for title and abstract screening	29

Retrieving Cochrane reviews is sometimes challenging and their reporting is not always optimal	29
Incorporating the possibility of cure into network meta-analyses: A case study from resected Stage III/IV melanoma	28
Fast‐and‐frugal decision tree for the rapid critical appraisal of systematic reviews	28
Capturing causal claims: A fine-tuned text mining model for extracting causal sentences from social science papers	28
Data extraction for evidence synthesis using a large language model: A proof‐of‐concept study	27
Bias propagation in network meta‐analysis models	27
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	27
How to plan and manage an individual participant data meta‐analysis. An illustrative toolkit	24
Graphical tools for visualizing the results of network meta‐analysis of multicomponent interventions	24
Calculating the power of a planned individual participant data meta‐analysis to examine prognostic factor effects for a binary outcome	24
Selecting a specialized education database for literature reviews and evidence synthesis projects	22
Bayesian Federated Inference for regression models based on non-shared medical center data	20
Issue Information	19
Population adjusted‐indirect comparisons in health technology assessment: A methodological systematic review	18
Six ways to handle dependent effect sizes in meta-analytic structural equation modeling: Is there a gold standard?	18
Impact of trial attrition rates on treatment effect estimates in chronic inflammatory diseases: A meta‐epidemiological study	18
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Evaluation of statistical methods used to meta‐analyse results from interrupted time series studies: A simulation study	18
Inclusive critical appraisal of qualitative and quantitative findings in evidence synthesis	18
Combining search filters for randomized controlled trials with the Cochrane RCT Classifier in Covidence: a methodological validation study	16
Using qualitative comparative analysis as a mixed methods synthesis in systematic mixed studies reviews: Guidance and a worked example	16
Twenty years of network meta‐analysis: Continuing controversies and recent developments	15
Double arcsine transform not appropriate for meta‐analysis	15
Critical appraisal tools used in systematic reviews of in vitro cell culture studies: A methodological study	15
RIMeta: An R shiny tool for estimating the reference interval from a meta‐analysis	14
Validation of large language models (Llama 3 and ChatGPT-4o mini) for title and abstract screening in biomedical systematic reviews	14
A semiparametric approach for meta‐analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies with multiple cut‐offs	14
Missingness mechanism messiness in meta‐analysis: A response to “The importance of plausible data‐generating mechanisms in simulation studies”	14
Causally interpretable meta‐analysis: Clearly defined causal effects and two case studies	13
A causal meta-analysis framework for clinical trials with unequal randomization ratios	12
A practical guide to evaluating sensitivity of literature search strings for systematic reviews using relative recall	12
Pitfalls in choosing data examples for methodological work: Bayesian approaches to a fixed effects meta‐analysis of zinc lozenges for the common cold	12
Issue Information	12
Reduce, reuse, recycle: Introducing MetaPipeX, a framework for analyses of multi‐lab data	12
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Issue Information	12
A re‐analysis of about 60,000 sparse data meta‐analyses suggests that using an adequate method for pooling matters	11
Tipping point analysis in network meta-analysis	11
Using systems perspectives in evidence synthesis: A methodological mapping review	11
Assessing risk of bias of cohort studies with large language models	11
Commercial funding and estimated intervention effects in randomized clinical trials: Systematic review of meta‐epidemiological studies	11
Appropriateness of conducting and reporting random‐effects meta‐analysis in oncology	11
An evaluation of the performance of stopping rules in AI‐aided screening for psychological meta‐analytical research	11
Using Elicit AI research assistant for data extraction in systematic reviews: A feasibility study across environmental and life sciences	11
Development of a search filter to retrieve reports of interrupted time series studies from MEDLINE and PubMed	11
Continuity corrections with Mantel–Haenszel estimators in Cochrane reviews	11
Rare events meta‐analysis using the Bayesian beta‐binomial model	11
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Accuracy and precision of fixed and random effects in meta‐analyses of randomized control trials for continuous outcomes	10
Combining meta‐analysis with multiple imputation for one‐step, privacy‐protecting estimation of causal treatment effects in multi‐site studies	10

Issue Information	9
Exploring methodological approaches used in network meta‐analysis of psychological interventions: A scoping review	9
Estimating interactions and subgroup‐specific treatment effects in meta‐analysis without aggregation bias: A within‐trial framework	9
Methods for using Bing's AI‐powered search engine for data extraction for a systematic review	9
Meta‐analyses of phase I dose‐finding studies: Application for the development of protein kinase inhibitors in oncology	9
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
Network meta‐analysis: Looping back	9
Methodological considerations for novel approaches to covariate‐adjusted indirect treatment comparisons	9
How should we handle predatory journals in evidence synthesis? A descriptive survey‐based cross‐sectional study of evidence synthesis experts	8
Sample size calculation for clinical trials analyzed with the meta‐analytic‐predictive approach	8
Treatment recommendations based on network meta-analysis: Rules for risk-averse decision-makers	8
A novel robust meta-analysis model using the t distribution for outlier accommodation and detection	8
Meta‐analysis of dichotomous and ordinal tests with an imperfect gold standard	8
Consensus on the definition and assessment of external validity of randomized controlled trials: A Delphi study	8
StudyTypeTeller—Large language models to automatically classify research study types for systematic reviews	8
Machine learning for identifying randomised controlled trials when conducting systematic reviews: Development and evaluation of its impact on practice	8
Network meta-analysis made simple: A composite likelihood approach	8
Issue Information	8
Meta-analytic pooling of intraclass correlation coefficient estimates	8
Development and validation of a geographic search filter for MEDLINE (PubMed) to identify studies about Germany	8
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When conducting a systematic review, can one trade search efficiency for potential publication bias?	8
A critical reflection on computing the sampling variance of the partial correlation coefficient	8
Robust variance estimation in small meta‐analysis with the standardized mean difference	8
Issue Information	7
metamedian: An R package for meta‐analyzing studies reporting medians	7
Assessment of temporal instability in the applied ecology and conservation evidence base	7
Scoping review search practices in the social sciences: A scoping review	7
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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	7
Bayes factor hypothesis testing in meta-analyses: Practical advantages and methodological considerations	7
ccaR: A package for assessing primary study overlap across systematic reviews in overviews	7
Personalized treatment hierarchies in Bayesian network meta-analysis	6
Diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis based on an exact within-study variance calculation method	6
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	6
Evolving use of the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool in biomedical systematic reviews	6
Advancing unanchored simulated treatment comparisons: A novel implementation and simulation study	6
Correction to “Network Meta‐Interpolation: Effect modification adjustment in network meta‐analysis using subgroup analyses”	6
Two decades of network meta‐analysis: Roadmap to their applications and challenges	6
Improved methods to construct prediction intervals for network meta‐analysis	6
Shiny-MAGEC: A Bayesian R shiny application for meta-analysis of censored adverse events	6
A tutorial on aggregating evidence from conceptual replication studies using the product Bayes factor	6
The hazards of using hazard ratios from proportional hazard models in indirect treatment comparisons	6
Visualization toolkits for enriching meta-analyses through evidence maps, bibliometrics, and alternative impact metrics	5
Ten practices for successful study coding in research syntheses: Developing coding manuals and coding forms	5
‘Twenty years of network meta‐analysis: Continuing controversies and recent developments’: A health technology assessment perspective	5
Combining estimators in interlaboratory studies and meta‐analyses	5
Comparing methods for handling missing covariates in meta‐regression	5
What level of automation is “good enough”? A benchmark of large language models for meta-analysis data extraction	5
Footprint of publication selection bias on meta‐analyses in medicine, environmental sciences, psychology, and economics	5
Strategizing AI utilization for psychological literature screening: A comparative analysis of machine learning algorithms and key factors to consider	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	5
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BibliZap: An exploratory evaluation of an automated multi-level citation searching tool for systematic and rapid reviews	5
Avoiding common mistakes in meta‐analysis: Understanding the distinct roles of Q, I‐squared, tau‐squared, and the prediction interval in reporting heterogeneity	5
Making sense of conducting a critical interpretive synthesis: A scoping review	5
Evaluation of the interim Cochrane rapid review methods guidance—A mixed‐methods study on the understanding of and adherence to the guidance	5
Two‐stage or not two‐stage? That is the question for IPD meta‐analysis projects	5
Barriers to searching for grey literature in systematic reviews: A survey of authors and editors	4
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Meta-analysis with Jeffreys priors: Empirical frequentist properties	4
Investigation of bias due to selective inclusion of study effect estimates in meta‐analyses of nutrition research	4
metaConvert: an automatic suite for estimation of 11 different effect size measures and flexible conversion across them	4
Response to: ‘Additional considerations and response to Graphical Representation of Overlap for OVErviews (GROOVE tool)”	4
Back-transformations in random-effects meta-analysis—Impact and interpretation	4
Bayesian random‐effects meta‐analysis with empirical heterogeneity priors for application in health technology assessment with very few studies	4
In‐depth evaluation of machine learning methods for semi‐automating article screening in a systematic review of mechanistic literature	4
Uncertain about uncertainty in matching‐adjusted indirect comparisons? A simulation study to compare methods for variance estimation	4
Methods of multi-indication meta-analysis for health technology assessment: A simulation study	4
A comparison of two models for detecting inconsistency in network meta‐analysis	4
Estimation of heterogeneity variance based on a generalized Q statistic in meta‐analysis of log‐odds‐ratio	4
Aggregating and analysing clinical trials data from multiple public registers using R package ctrdata	4
How comprehensive is comprehensive? Prevalence of searches beyond peer-reviewed journal articles and bibliographic sources: a cross-sectional study of systematic reviews	4
Synthesizing evidence from the earliest studies to support decision‐making: To what extent could the evidence be reliable?	4
A comprehensive review and shiny application on the matching‐adjusted indirect comparison	4
Reverse chronology quota record screening for realist synthesis: Fostering causally rich extrapolations with a diverse and contemporaneous sample of literature	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
Developing prediction models when there are systematically missing predictors in individual patient data meta‐analysis	4
Feasibility and desirability of screening search results from Google Search exhaustively for systematic reviews: A cross‐case analysis	4

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Simple imputation method for meta-analysis of survival rates when precision information is missing	4
Why do researchers co‐author evidence syntheses with librarians? A mixed‐methods study	4
Predatory journals and their practices present a conundrum for systematic reviewers and evidence synthesisers of health research: A qualitative descriptive study	3
Robust Bayesian meta‐analysis: Model‐averaging across complementary publication bias adjustment methods	3
Development of the individual participant data integrity tool for assessing the integrity of randomised trials using individual participant data	3
An open competition involving thousands of competitors failed to construct useful abstract classifiers for new diagnostic test accuracy systematic reviews	3
Beyond human gold standards: A multimodel framework for automated abstract classification and information extraction	3
Key concepts and reporting recommendations for mapping reviews: A scoping review of 68 guidance and methodological studies	3
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Generalizable and scalable multistage biomedical concept normalization leveraging large language models	3
metaCOVID: A web‐application for living meta‐analyses of COVID‐19 trials	3
Meta-regression with categorical moderators and dependent effect sizes: A simulation study	3
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The application of ROBINS-I guidance in systematic reviews of non-randomised studies: A descriptive study	3
Paperfetcher: A tool to automate handsearching and citation searching for systematic reviews	3
TheCONSENSYSapproach: An instrument to supportCONtextual SENsitivityinSYStematicreviews	3
Automating the data extraction process for systematic reviews using GPT-4o and o3	3
ZIBGLMM: Zero-inflated bivariate generalized linear mixed model for meta-analysis with double-zero-event studies	3
Estimating pairwise overlap in umbrella reviews: Considerations for using the corrected covered area (CCA) index methodology	3
What happens to qualitative studies initially presented as conference abstracts: A survey among study authors	3
Limits in the search date for rapid reviews of diagnostic test accuracy studies	3
Translating systematic searches in the APA PsycInfo database from Ovid to EBSCOhost: A tutorial based on a filter translation	3
The use of fixed study main effects in arm‐based network meta‐analysis	3
Identifying and managing problematic trials: A research integrity assessment tool for randomized controlled trials in evidence synthesis	3