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Living Systematic Reviews

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Meta-Research

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2345))

Abstract

Systematic reviews are difficult to keep up to date, but failure to do so leads to poor review currency and accuracy. “Living systematic review” (LSR) is an approach that aims to continually update a review, incorporating relevant new evidence as it becomes available. LSRs may be particularly important in fields where research evidence is emerging rapidly, current evidence is uncertain, and new research may change policy or practice decisions.

This chapter describes the concept and processes of living systematic reviews. It describes the general principles of LSRs, when they might be of particular value, and how their procedures differ from conventional systematic reviews. The chapter focuses particularly on two methods of sequential meta-analysis that may be particularly useful for LSRs: Trial Sequential Analysis and Sequential Meta-Analysis, which both control for Type I error, Type II error (failing to detect a genuine effect) and take account of heterogeneity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, UK

    Mark Simmonds

  2. Cochrane Australia, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Julian H. Elliott, Anneliese Synnot & Tari Turner

Authors
  1. Mark Simmonds
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  2. Julian H. Elliott
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  3. Anneliese Synnot
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  4. Tari Turner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Simmonds .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology University of Ioannina Medical School, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Imperial College London London, UK, Ioannina, Greece

    Evangelos Evangelou

  2. Knowledge Translation Program Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Department of Surgery and Cancer Faculty of Medicine Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology Imperial College London, UK ISSN, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Areti Angeliki Veroniki

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Simmonds, M., Elliott, J.H., Synnot, A., Turner, T. (2022). Living Systematic Reviews. In: Evangelou, E., Veroniki, A.A. (eds) Meta-Research. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2345. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1566-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1566-9_7

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1565-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1566-9

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