Enhancing the usability of systematic reviews by improving the consideration and description of interventions
Open accessAbstract
The importance of adequate intervention descriptions in minimising research waste and improving research usability and reproducibility has gained attention in the past few years. Nearly all focus to date has been on intervention reporting in randomised trials. Yet clinicians are encouraged to use systematic reviews, whenever available, rather than single trials to inform their practice. This article explores the problem and implications of incomplete intervention details during the planning, conduct, and reporting of systematic reviews and makes recommendations for review authors, peer reviewers, and journal editors
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Details of interventions and comparisons for each eligible study are extracted following the TIDieR checklist.
“We will follow the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist to extract details of interventions and comparisons for each eligible study (Hoffmann 2014; Hoffmann 2017).”
From Psychotherapeutic treatments for depression in older adults (2024) · cites this paper as Hoffmann 2017
Recommendation 3 says review authors should use TIDieR items to guide extraction of essential intervention details for each included study. The paper also mentions the value of describing comparator interventions in “Choosing which intervention to implement,” but does not explicitly recommend using TIDieR to extract comparison details for every study. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAn intervention summary table highlights characteristics that have not been investigated in existing studies.
“and highlights characteristics that have not been investigated in existing studies.73 75”
From PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews (2021) · cites this paper as [73]
An intervention summary table helps readers compare the characteristics of the interventions and consider those that may be feasible for implementation in their setting.
“An intervention summary table helps readers compare the characteristics of the interventions and consider those that may be feasible for implementation in their setting;”
From PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews (2021) · cites this paper as [73]
An intervention summary table highlights missing or unavailable details.
“highlights missing or unavailable details;”
From PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews (2021) · cites this paper as [73]
An intervention summary table shows which studies did not specify certain characteristics as part of the intervention.
“shows which studies did not specify certain characteristics as part of the intervention;”
From PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews (2021) · cites this paper as [73]
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Cites
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“The inclusion of the TIDieR checklist in data extraction followed recent guidance for improving systematic reviews.(43) Whilst the assessment of quality was undertaken independently, data extraction was accumulated by the 2 independent reviewers (ED, AL) into a shared file and then was checked and expanded by a 3rd re…”
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Psychotherapeutic treatments for depression in older adults
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- Authors
- Hoffmann, T. C., Oxman, A. D., Ioannidis, J. P., Moher, D., Lasserson, T. J., Tovey, D. I., Stein, K., Sutcliffe, K., Ravaud, P., Altman, D. G., Perera, R., & Glasziou, P.
- Affiliations
- Bond University (AU)
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
- Stanford University (US)
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (CA)
- Cochrane (GB)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Inserm (FR)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMJ
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2017-07-20
- Volume
- 358
- Pages
- j2998
- ISSN
- 1756-1833 (ISSN-L)
- 0959-8138
- OpenAlex
- W2737356508
- Semantic Scholar
- 8ce4d1d5f028ed3b06bfa1076a86894fd156d2d7
- Cited by
- 194
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 8
- FWCI
- 5.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMJ (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Bond University Research Portal (Bond University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Ottawa
- Laura and John Arnold Foundation
- Cancer Research UK (16895)
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Delphi Technique in Research
- Keywords
- systematic reviews, intervention description, intervention reporting, research waste, reproducibility, peer review, journal editors, reporting quality
- MeSH terms
- Clinical Trials as Topic, Research Design, Review Literature as Topic, Reproducibility of Results, Peer Review, Research, Evidence-Based Medicine, Editorial Policies
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