Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta‐analyses in ecology and evolutionary biology: a PRISMA extension

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, ecologists and evolutionary biologists have aggregated primary research using meta‐analytic methods to understand ecological and evolutionary phenomena. Meta‐analyses can resolve long‐standing disputes, dispel spurious claims, and generate new research questions. At their worst, however, meta‐analysis publications are wolves in sheep's clothing: subjective with biased conclusions, hidden under coats of objective authority. Conclusions can be rendered unreliable by inappropriate statistical methods, problems with the methods used to select primary research, or problems within the primary research itself. Because of these risks, meta‐analyses are increasingly conducted as part of systematic reviews, which use structured, transparent, and reproducible methods to collate and summarise evidence. For readers to determine whether the conclusions from a systematic review or meta‐analysis should be trusted – and to be able to build upon the review – authors need to report what they did, why they did it, and what they found. Complete, transparent, and reproducible reporting is measured by ‘reporting quality’. To assess perceptions and standards of reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta‐analyses published in ecology and evolutionary biology, we surveyed 208 researchers with relevant experience (as authors, reviewers, or editors), and conducted detailed evaluations of 102 systematic review and meta‐analysis papers published between 2010 and 2019. Reporting quality was far below optimal and approximately normally distributed. Measured reporting quality was lower than what the community perceived, particularly for the systematic review methods required to measure trustworthiness. The minority of assessed papers that referenced a guideline (~16%) showed substantially higher reporting quality than average, and surveyed researchers showed interest in using a reporting guideline to improve reporting quality. The leading guideline for improving reporting quality of systematic reviews is the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Here we unveil an extension of PRISMA to serve the meta‐analysis community in ecology and evolutionary biology: PRISMA‐EcoEvo (version 1.0). PRISMA‐EcoEvo is a checklist of 27 main items that, when applicable, should be reported in systematic review and meta‐analysis publications summarising primary research in ecology and evolutionary biology. In this explanation and elaboration document, we provide guidance for authors, reviewers, and editors, with explanations for each item on the checklist, including supplementary examples from published papers. Authors can consult this PRISMA‐EcoEvo guideline both in the planning and writing stages of a systematic review and meta‐analysis, to increase reporting quality of submitted manuscripts. Reviewers and editors can use the checklist to assess reporting quality in the manuscripts they review. Overall, PRISMA‐EcoEvo is a resource for the ecology and evolutionary biology community to facilitate transparent and comprehensively reported systematic reviews and meta‐analyses.