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

Vivian Welch ,Asbjørn Hrõbjartsson ,Steve Mcdonald ,Evan Mayo‐Wilson ,Roger Chou ,Isabelle Boutron ,Jennifer Tetzlaff ,Jeremy Grimshaw ,Elizabeth Loder ,Elie A. Akl ,David Moher ,Tammy Hoffmann ,Penny Whiting ,Matthew J. Page ,Julie Glanville ,Joanne E. Mckenzie ,Andrea C. Tricco ,Cynthia D. Mulrow ,Larissa Shamseer ,Lesley Stewart ,Sue Brennan ,Patrick M. Bossuyt ,Luke A Mcguinness ,James Thomas ,Tianjing Li ,Manoj M. Lalu

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003583

Abstract

Matthew Page and co-authors describe PRISMA 2020, an updated reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Highlights

Summary pointsTo ensure a systematic review is valuable to users, authors should prepare a transparent, complete, and accurate account of why the review was done, what they did, and what they found
We anticipate that the PRISMA 2020 statement will benefit authors, editors, and peer reviewers of systematic reviews, and different users of reviews, including guideline developers, policy makers, healthcare providers, patients, and other stakeholders
Describe the direction of the effect. 20c Present results of all investigations of possible causes of heterogeneity among study results. 20d Present results of all sensitivity analyses conducted to assess the robustness of the synthesised results

Summary

Summary points

To ensure a systematic review is valuable to users, authors should prepare a transparent, complete, and accurate account of why the review was done, what they did, and what they found. The PRISMA 2020 statement provides updated reporting guidance for systematic reviews that reflects advances in methods to identify, select, appraise, and synthesise studies. Addition of a sub-item to the ‘Data items’ item recommending authors report how outcomes were defined, which results were sought, and methods for selecting a subset of results from included studies (see item #10a). Splitting of the ‘Synthesis of results’ item in the Methods section into six sub-items recommending authors describe: the processes used to decide which studies were eligible for each synthesis; any methods required to prepare the data for synthesis; any methods used to tabulate or visually display results of individual studies and syntheses; any methods used to synthesise results; any methods used to explore possible causes of heterogeneity among study results (such as subgroup analysis, meta-regression); and any sensitivity analyses used to assess robustness of the synthesised results (see item #13a13f).

Results of syntheses

Discussion

Conclusion