PRISMA-S: an extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews

Abstract

Background Literature searches underlie the foundations of systematic reviews and related review types. Yet, the literature searching component of systematic reviews and related review types is often poorly reported. Guidance for literature search reporting has been diverse, and, in many cases, does not offer enough detail to authors who need more specific information about reporting search methods and information sources in a clear, reproducible way. This document presents the PRISMA-S (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses literature search extension) checklist, and explanation and elaboration. Methods The checklist was developed using a 3-stage Delphi survey process, followed by a consensus conference and public review process. Results The final checklist includes 16 reporting items, each of which is detailed with exemplar reporting and rationale. Conclusions The intent of PRISMA-S is to complement the PRISMA Statement and its extensions by providing a checklist that could be used by interdisciplinary authors, editors, and peer reviewers to verify that each component of a search is completely reported and therefore reproducible.

PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews

“…43 Further guidance and examples of reporting search strategies can be found in PRISMA-Search. 41 Example of item 6 of PRISMA 2020 checklist "On 21 December 2017, MAJ searched 16 health, social care, education, and legal databases, the names and date coverage of which are given in the Table 1…We also carried out a 'snowball' search to identify additional studies by searching the reference lists of publications eligible for full-text review and using Google Scholar to identify and screen studies citing them…On 26 April 2018, we conducted a search of Google Scholar and additional supplementary searches for publications on websites of 10 relevant organisations (including government departments, charities, think-tanks, and research institutes). Full details of these supplementary searches can be found in the Additional file.…”

“…Authors should fully report the “what, when, and how” of the sources searched; the “what” and “when” are covered in item #6, and the “how” is covered in item #7. Further guidance and examples about searching can be found in PRISMA-Search, an extension to the PRISMA statement for reporting literature searches in systematic reviews 41…”

“…Empirical evidence suggests that peer review of search strategies is associated with improvements to search strategies, leading to retrieval of additional relevant records 43. Further guidance and examples of reporting search strategies can be found in PRISMA-Search 41…”

The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews

“…However, for updated and living systematic reviews, there may be some additional considerations that need to be addressed. Where there is relevant content from other reporting guidelines, we reference these guidelines within the items in the explanation and elaboration paper [41] (such as PRISMA-Search [42] in items 6 and 7, Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guideline [27] in item 13d). Box 1 includes a glossary of terms used throughout the PRISMA 2020 statement.…”

Sildenafil for Asian Adult Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) standards [23] and PRISMA extension for literature searches [24] (Additional le 1). Our protocol was registered in PROSPERO (registration number CRD42020190582).…”