Overviews of systematic reviews: great promise, greater challenge - PubMed (original) (raw)

Editorial

Overviews of systematic reviews: great promise, greater challenge

Joanne E McKenzie et al. Syst Rev. 2017.

Abstract

The proliferation of systematic reviews and escalating demand from policy makers has driven a newer form of evidence synthesis-overviews of systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews are publishing a special thematic series on overviews and are encouraging submissions on the development and evaluation of methods for this review type. The authors' of this editorial introduce the series by considering challenges that arise when conducting an overview and what methods guidance is available. They emphasise the importance of evaluating overview methods to understand the trade-offs of using different approaches and propose that a more systematic and coordinated approach to methods development would be beneficial. Finally, they consider the potential for overviews to drive improvements in the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews.

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Competing interests

Joanne E. McKenzie and Sue E. Brennan are both Associate Editors for Systematic Reviews and Joanne E. McKenzie is also the series editor for the ‘Overviews of systematic reviews: development and evaluation of methods’ thematic series. Any manuscripts submitted to the series that Joanne E. McKenzie had a conflict of interest with were handled by other editors in the journal.

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Figures

Fig. 1

Alignment and overlap of systematic reviews and their included primary studies in an overview of aromatherapy

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