Hi,
I'm writing a manuscript concerning a systematic review of case reports of a specific lesion.
Is it possible to include records in any form say short communications, letters, and governmental reports or case reports without an available full text or abstract in a systematic review based on their title only? If possible, then wouldn't it contrast with the guidelines suggested by PRISMA? Are there any other guidelines suitable for this purpose?
Due to the rarity of the concerned REPORTS in our study, the inclusion criteria are flexible and any RECORDS would be of value.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
With gratitude,
Nafis
I.have read the systemic review , actually abstract or full test are included but I couldn't read the title one containing systemic review. PRISMA is the best available guileline for that .
If you research is a comprehensive review, then including as close to all writings on the topic is a good idea. Usually, this is time and money intensive (think of a years long project, rather than months to a year, for example). Otherwise, full text availability gets one to the mainstream knowledge and affords access to your readers. Anyway, that is my opinion.
James
It depends on your inclusion criteria and following PRISMAArticle The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reportin...
Alok Kumar Bharti James Friedman Proloy Barua Thanks for your replies.
However, I couldn't find any established guidelines for a systematic review of rare case reports.
What about common case reports? Would the systematic reviews of rare case reports be significantly different from that of common ones? How so?
James
I think only title will be not sufficient . ideally it should abstract atleast
You can include what you wish in a systematic review, it is your research after all.
You should aim to include all publication types, to avoid any bias.
If publications have an abstract but do not have an available full-text then you can either include or exclude; it is a judgement call. For instance, you may include if there are only a few other eligible studies. In contrast, you may exclude if you have many eligible studies (although, you should still note it in the paper, that those publications were excluded because you could not get the full-text).
If only a title is available you cannot include; but again you should note in the paper that the publication was excluded because you could not get the full-text.
You can often get full-texts by emailing the authors or organisation to request it. Alternatively, you can get access to almost any full-text via the British Library's 'on-demand' service; although it is paid. Your institution may cover the fee.
James Friedman Yes, reviews of rare cases can be different, especially in veterinary medicine of farm animals where practitioners have limited resources for sampling, testing, etc. For instance in our study, a lot of case reports regarding farm animals lack sufficient data e.g. age, gender, exact species, a valid diagnostic test, etc. In some cases, the full text has been removed from the less credible journal. We deal a lot with such journals in this field.
Our systematic review mainly focuses on summarizing all the published records (in form of case reports or other types of publications) which include a report of a particular type of tumor in tables. Sometimes articles with only available titles contain information that could be used to fill SOME of the fields of the table.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Phytochemistry
- Extracts