Prioritization and sequential exclusion of articles in systematic reviews

Area of Science:

• Information Science
• Medical Informatics
• Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

• Discrepancies in study exclusion reasons between reviewers are a significant challenge in systematic reviews.
• Subjectivity in reporting exclusion causes can lead to inconsistencies and hinder reproducibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate a prioritization and sequential exclusion approach for systematic reviews.
• To reduce subjectivity and improve the consistency of reporting reasons for study exclusion.

Main Methods:

• Proposing a novel "prioritization and sequential exclusion" method for study screening.
• Applying this approach to systematically review the literature and document exclusion rationales.

Main Results:

• The proposed approach aims to minimize disagreements in exclusion reasons between independent reviewers.
• It offers a structured method to reduce the burden associated with documenting mismatched exclusion causes.

Conclusions:

• The prioritization and sequential exclusion approach has the potential to enhance the reliability of systematic reviews.
• This method may streamline the process of identifying and reporting study exclusions, improving overall efficiency.