Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31784773›Full record

ArticleWorld journal of urology2020

The fate of urological systematic reviews registered in PROSPERO.

Sari Khaleel, Brent Cleveland, Arveen Kalapara, Niranjan Sathianathen, Priyamvadha Balaji, Philipp Dahm

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in World journal of urology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Sari KhaleelDepartment of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Brent ClevelandDepartment of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Arveen KalaparaDepartment of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Niranjan SathianathenDepartment of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Priyamvadha BalajiDepartment of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Philipp DahmDepartment of Urology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. pdahm@umn.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2819-2553

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo identify urologic systematic reviews (SRs) registered to PROSPERO that resulted in a publication, and to evaluate their methodological quality and concordance with their stated a priori protocols.

methodsWe searched PubMed to identify urologic SR protocols registered in PROSPERO that resulted in a publication and assessed their methodological quality and protocols in relation to their stated a priori protocols in PROSPERO.

resultsOf the 576 urologic SR protocols registered in PROSPERO up to December 2017, 201 (34.9%) resulted in a full SR publication, but only 40 (17.7%) updated their registration record accordingly. Publications were spread over 100 different journals, with a median time-to-publication of 29 months (95% CI 25.0-33.0). The most common topic by far was prostate cancer (59.7%), followed by voiding issues (15.3%), and renal transplantation (15.3%). Only little over half the reviews (52.74%) explicitly stated primary outcome(s) that matched the primary outcome of their corresponding PROSPERO protocol. Notable methodologic deviations from registered protocols included planned restriction on study design (33%), heterogeneity analysis (42%) and planned risk of bias analysis (65.2%).

conclusionSR authors in urology are increasingly using PROSPERO to register their titles, but our findings indicate that registration alone is not a guarantor of a high-quality SR product. There appears to be a critical need to raise the bar for review authors registering protocols in PROSPERO, with an emphasis on transparency in their publication status updates as well as deviations from their a priori protocols.

Indexed as

Databases, FactualSystematic Reviews as TopicUrologyEvidence-based medicineMeta-analysisPROSPEROProtocolSystematic reviews

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.