Evidence Synthesis: Final Steps: Writing and Reporting

A key piece of any evidence synthesis is reporting the methods you used throughout the searching, screening, extraction, and analysis phases. Providing in-depth details about these processes increases the transparency and replicability of your work. 

In your protocol, you should identify the reporting guideline you'll follow. The most common reporting standard is PRISMA, but it is not the only one. When you use PRISMA for reporting, you'll fill out a flow chart diagram detailing your search results and screening process. You'll also fill out a checklist indicating where in your review (i.e., which page) each important piece is discussed. 

PRISMA 2020 Diagram

If you used Covidence for screening, it will automatically generate a downloadable flow chart diagram template with some boxes filled out. You may need to modify this document to include additional information that occurred outside the Covidence platform, such as hand searching for grey literature. 

The PRISMA flow diagram may be included in your manuscript as a table/chart or it may be included in the appendix. 

PRISMA 2020 Checklist

The checklist contains 27 items that are key pieces of a systematic review or (potentially) a scoping review. After you write your manuscript, you'll return to this checklist and indicate the page in your paper where each item can be found. The PRISMA checklist may be included in the appendix of your paper.

The sections of an evidence synthesis review will look similar to any other scholarly article, but the content in each section may be different. The content that should be included in each broad section is listed below.

Title

Include the type of evidence synthesis you are doing in the title. This will make your article more findable and identifiable. Most authors format the title as "[Insert main title here]: A Scoping Review".

Abstract

The Abstract is a structured paragraph explaining your research. It should contain one or two sentences summarizing each section of your article. Your abstract will be publicly available even if the rest of your article is behind a paywall.

You may also be asked to submit keywords as part of your abstract. The purpose of keywords is to make your article more findable. This is where you may choose to incorporate alternate phrases or spellings for the main concept of your article, particularly ones that do not fit into other sections of your abstract. 

Do not rush through writing the abstract; it's how others will find your work. It's important to think about the key words and phrases that may be used when searching for information on your topic.

Introduction

The Introduction should explain the context of your research question and your justification for completing an evidence synthesis. You don't need to do a full literature review on your topic -- that's what the rest of your article will do -- but you will want to include background information on your topic.

This is where you may want to reference other evidence syntheses on your topic that are tangentially related. If you identified reviews on your topic that are not methodologically sound, you can reference them here as well. 

The introduction is also where you should clearly state your research question(s) and your rationale for the type of evidence synthesis you chose.

Methods

The Methods section is where you will discuss the steps you took in your review. You will explain the details of your search, your inclusion criteria, and your process for data extraction (and quality assessment, if relevant).

These steps should already be outlined in your protocol, which you can cite in your final manuscript, and should follow the methodological guidelines that you have selected. If your actual process deviated from what you outlined in your protocol, you can explain why here. 

Any additional documentation related to your methods, such as your database searches, can be included as supplemental materials in the appendix.

Results

The Results section is where you will explain the findings of your review. It is also where you can include your PRISMA flow chart. Many authors choose to create tables to compare the final included citations. These tables are based on the data elements that were extracted. This section is where you can discuss each included citation at length and highlight any discrepancies that appeared during your quality assessment. 

Discussion & Conclusion

The Discussion and/or Conclusion sections are where you will summarize your research. 

You will want to mention implications for future research, such as areas where additional evidence syntheses should be performed or areas where more empirical research is needed. Make sure to include any limitations of your review in this section.

Author Contributions, Acknowledgements, Affiliations, Conflicts of Interest, and Funding

A growing number of journals are asking authors to identify specific author contributions to a publication using the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) framework. CRediT breaks down 14 distinct areas where individuals may contribute to authoring a publication. Even if your selected journal doesn't require a CRediT statement, including one can make your work more transparent and can ensure that each member of the team receives credit for their contributions.

In scholarly publications, it is common for authors to list their institutional affiliations and/or professional credentials next to their names. This information allows for easier identification and helps to establish them as trusted professionals in their fields. You may also choose to include your ORCiD, which is a unique identifier that helps differentiate your work from work produced by others with similar names.

Some members of your team may not have participated to an extent that justifies authorship. For example, it's common for teams to include members who only participate in the screening stage, which is not listed as a CRediT role that necessitates authorship. Even if the team chooses not to include these members as full co-authors, you can still include their names and affiliations in an Acknowledgements section at the end of your article.

Lastly, it's important to note any conflicts of interest or funding the team received to complete the review. If you received grant money to produce the evidence synthesis, you will want to include that. 

Appendix

Most evidence synthesis publications include additional methodological documentation in the form of supplemental materials. This is where you should include at least one full database search strategy, although you may choose to include the search strategy for each database you use. 

Some journals prefer the PRISMA flowchart to be included as a table in the article, while others prefer to put in the appendix. You can also include the PRISMA checklist in the appendix as well. 

If you cannot submit supplemental materials with your article for any reason, you can deposit these materials in the Carolina Digital Repository and cite them in your manuscript.