Draft search-strategy template for the synthesis series — disposition

§3Disposition and amendments

§3.1Disposition table

Table 1. Every submission with its disposition. Each row links to the submission in full.

§3.2Summary by disposition

Table 2. Counts by disposition, with the meaning of each.

§3.3Resulting amendments

1. The search date is not on the face of the document — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/001. The search date is now printed adjacent to every certainty rating and is carried in the document metadata, so that the interval between the search and the reading is visible without reference to the methods section.
2. Registry records without posted results are neither screened nor counted — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/003. Registry records are now screened as records in their own right, and those meeting the eligibility criteria without a posted result are reported as unreported studies with their registered outcome measures and their completion dates.
3. It is not clear which provisions bind the assessment committee — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/008. Binding provisions are now stated in a fixed form, are listed together in an annex, and a departure from any of them must be recorded in the document it affects with the reason, while descriptive passages are marked as descriptions of practice.
4. Two factual descriptions of the sponsor's programme are inaccurate — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/011. The trial status now reads as completed at a pre-specified interim analysis, with the analysis identified, and the dose is stated in the unit used in the approved labelling. The submission is identified as an industry submission on its face in accordance with…
5. Absence of evidence is presented in a form a reader will take as negative evidence — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/013. A standing formulation has been adopted and is applied wherever an evidence gap is recorded, distinguishing an outcome assessed and not demonstrated from an outcome not assessed. The formulation is identical at every occurrence so that it can be recognised at…
6. References should carry a persistent identifier for every cited source — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/005. Every reference without a persistent identifier now carries an explicit statement that the identifier is not held by the Institute, so that its absence is a recorded fact rather than an apparent oversight.
7. Nothing prevents a conclusion stronger than its certainty rating — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/006. Conclusion wording is now drawn from a fixed set of formulations tied to the certainty rating, the mapping is published in the methodology document, and a document whose conclusion does not match its rating cannot be ratified.
8. The rating conflates absence of evidence with conflicting evidence — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/018. A standing formulation has been adopted and is applied to every low and very low certainty rating in the document set. The rating scale itself is unchanged, so that Institute ratings remain readable against published assessments using the same scale.
9. The same concept is given three different names in one document — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/012. A single term is now used throughout for each defined concept, and the glossary entry is linked at first use within each section rather than once per document.
10. Protocol amendments are permitted without a requirement to record when they were made — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/010. Every protocol amendment is now dated, is recorded against the stage of the review in progress at the time, and appears in the published protocol history, so that a reader can see which analyses were specified before the results were known.
11. The document is unreadable without specialist training — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/007. Every document now opens with a plain-language summary of not more than 150 words, placed above the technical abstract and carrying the same certainty language, so that the two cannot diverge.
12. Automated assistance in screening should be disclosed and validated — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/002. The methodology now requires that any automated assistance in screening or extraction be disclosed in the review, that its output be verified by a human for every included record, and that its measured performance against human screening be reported.
13. The database set omits sources relevant to the compounds in scope — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/017. The standard database set is extended, the conditional sources are named together with the trigger for searching them, and every review states which sources were searched and which were not, with the reason.
14. Quantitative claims are reproduced without the method that produced them — arising from DRAFT-SEARCH-STRAT/019. Every quantitative claim now carries the determination that produced it at the point of use, and figures obtained by non-comparable methods are no longer presented in the same row or sentence.

References cited on this page

References are numbered in order of first citation in this document. Each superscript in the text links to its entry below.

1. International Organization for Standardization. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories. ISO/IEC Standard 2017;3rd edition. identifier not held by the Institute

Identifiers are reproduced only where the Institute holds them. Where a digital object identifier or PubMed identifier is not shown, the Institute has recorded the journal and year and has not constructed an identifier.