Survey of systematic review authors in dentistry: challenges in methodology and reporting

The study reported in this article had three objectives: 1) identify the challenges faced by authors of dental systematic reviews (SR) during the process of literature search and selection; 2) determine whether dental SR authors' responses to survey questions about their study methodology were consistent with the reported published methodology; and 3) assess whether dental SR authors' evidence-based publication experience was associated with reported methodology. Seventy-eight authors (53 percent) of dental SRs out of 147 potential authors published from 2000 to 2006 responded to an online survey. According to the respondents, the most challenging aspects of literature search and selection were the initial design and performing extended literature searches. Agreement between the protocol identified by SR authors on the survey and the actual protocol described in their publications was fair to moderate. There were virtually no correlations between authors' publication experience, systematic review literature search, and selection thoroughness except for the number of past SRs published, and no differences in thoroughness between SRs written by clinicians (dental practitioners in the community) and dental school faculty members. Dental SR authors do not appear to fully appreciate the importance of extensive literature searches as central to the validity of their systematic review methods and potential findings.