Hello, I wanted to inquire if doing a combined systematic literature review and meta-analysis in PhD dissertation fulfills the requirements of the degree? Particularly if there is dearth of any such research.
That depends on your coursework and requirement, it varies from institution to institution. However, doing a systematic review and meta-analysis is considered to be an added advantage especially when your objective is to inform policy for action, developing guidelines and so on.
No, it actually does not. Join me in co_authoring my tome on the whole issue of correcting biostatistics..............
Such types of research are becoming more popular in certain areas, and in my opinion, if done in the best way, of course, it supports this degree.
It varies from institution to institution. Accepting systematic review and meta-analysis topic for PhD will depend on the aims and objectives tailored to add to already available body of knowledge.
The systematic review with meta-analysis is at the top of the pyramid of evidence in therapeutic interventions. It fulfills all requirements of the degree in PhD dissertation.
A similar kind of question and discussion on ResearchGate.
Link: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_Cochrane_systematic_review_as_a_PhD_thesis_possible_in_India
This is different from institution to institution, but also between different PhD-programs within the same institution. Personally I recomment all my PhD-candidates to do a review on their topic, and hopefully a meta-analysis. This gives a great way into the research field. When I was a PhD-candidate myself I made a Cochrane review (93 pages), but the institution did not allowed me to have this as one of my articles. So, it was included as an appendix in my thesis. Good luck!
Hi Ali,
The following article could be interesting for you. As an additional note: My own PhD thesis was exclusively built on systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Best wishes, Reint Meursinge Reynders
Article Acceptance of a systematic review as a thesis: Survey of bio...
Yes. The work will be the same and you will only find that there are few studies after finishing the review. If there is a meta-analysis there must be at least two studies.
It varies from institution to institution, I think in Egypt they can accept it in Master, not PhD.
I think that it might be better not to focus on the variation between institutions but instead look at requirements for a PhD. In general they do not necessarily require you to produce new data but they do expect you to advance knowledge in some way while demonstrating wider scholarly accomplishment including use and understanding analytical techniques. Much like primary research some meta-analytic projects would provide a good platform for this while others wouldn't. The problem with a SR and Meta-analysis is that you are limited by the scope of the available literature. I think that the reality is that the topics in which there is sufficient scope, uncertainty and complexity in the literature (leaving aside volume) to deliver a PhD from a meta-analysis are few and far between. I think much of it rests on how 'analytic' as opposed to descriptive the review is and indeed how complex the analysis is. A systematic review of 5 trials on a simple question is unlikely to ever warrant a PhD - why would it? All you can really add to a pretty cursory read of the results is a bit of critical appraisal and a fairly simple analysis + some 'due diligence' of a comprehensive search.
In 2016, a survey conducted among individuals in charge of European PhD programs from 105 institutions. The survey asked about acceptance of Systematic Reviews (SRs) as the partial or entire basis for a PhD thesis, their attitude towards such a model for PhD theses, and their knowledge about SR methodology.
The result showed, in 47% of the programs, SRs were an acceptable study design for a PhD thesis. However, only 20% of participants expressed a personal opinion that SRs meet the criteria for a PhD thesis. The most common reasons for not accepting SRs as the basis for PhD theses were that SRs are ‘not a result of a PhD candidate’s independent work, but more of a team effort’ and that SRs ‘do not produce enough new knowledge for a dissertation’. The majority of participants were not familiar with basic concepts related to SRs; questions about meta-analyses and the type of plots frequently used in SRs were correctly answered by only one third of the participants.
I hope this address your question.
For more details please have look to the article: Article Acceptance of a systematic review as a thesis: Survey of bio...
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