Draft search-strategy template for the synthesis series
Consultation on the search-strategy template used across the synthesis series: the databases searched, the structure of the strategy, the handling of registry records without posted results, and the requirement that a strategy be published in a form that can…
§1Consultation and window
§1.1Window
- Opened
- 2 November 2024
- Closed
- 14 December 2024
- Duration
- 42 days
- Status
- Closed — the disposition is published
- Document under consultation
- Methodology
- Submissions received
- 19
§1.2Consultation questions
The secretariat put the following questions. A submission was not required to address them and several did not; the questions record what the Institute was uncertain about rather than restricting what a respondent could raise.
- Is the database set sufficient, and is the omission of any source material to the questions the series addresses?
- Should registry records without posted results be screened as studies, or recorded separately as unreported studies?
- Is the requirement to publish a re-runnable strategy achievable for every database in the set?
§1.3How a submission is handled
- Every submission is signed. The Institute publishes no anonymous submission.
- Every submission carries a declared interest. A declaration of no interest is itself a declaration and is recorded as one. A declaration is not a disqualification and the Institute has never given a submission less weight on that ground.
- A submission from an employee of a marketing-authorisation holder is identified as an industry submission on its face, following a unanimous consultation on the conflicts policy.
- Every submission receives a secretariat response and a disposition. Submissions that are not accepted remain published in full; the Institute does not remove a submission because it disagrees with it.
- There is no voting, no reputation score, no reply thread and no editing after receipt.
§1.4Outcome
The template was ratified with amendments. Registry records without posted results are screened and then reported as a separate category of unreported study rather than merged with excluded records, and the re-run requirement is stated per database with the limitations of each recorded.
The disposition table, listing each submission with its disposition and the resulting amendment, is at §3.