Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research

Reporting guidelines under development for systematic reviews


Reporting guidelines under development for systematic reviews, systematic review-related papers and PRISMA extensions

(year of development in brackets)

PRISMA-PC – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis – Protocols for Children (2014)

PRISMA-C – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis – Reporting for Children (2014)

PRISMA-RR – an extension to PRISMA for rapid reviews (2015)

PRISMA-Ethics – an extension to PRISMA for SRs on ethics literature (2018)

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses – PRISMA Extension of Preclinical In Vivo Animal Experiments (2020)

PRISMA-COSMIN – Recommendations for Reporting Systematic Reviews of Outcome Measurement Instruments (2020)

Minimum standards for content and format of meta-data and data reporting in systematic reviews (2020)

PRISMA for LSR – Extension of PRISMA 2020 for living systematic reviews (2021)

PRISMA-AI-Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – Artificial Intelligence Extension (2022)

PRISMA-Nut – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of NUTritional interventions (2022)

PRISMA-QES – PRISMA Extension for Qualitative Evidence Syntheses (2022)

PRITEM – Preferred Reporting Items for Evidence Mapping(2022)

INCREASE – Increasing transparency and Reproducibility of data Extraction for evidence Synthesis research (2023)

PRISMA Extension for Systematic Reviews Using GRADE (2023)

PRINMA-A — Preferred Reporting Items for Network Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Statement (2023)

META-TTE – Transparent reporting of meta-analyses of time-to-event outcomes based on aggregate data from randomised trials of interventions (2023)

PRISMA-prev – Extension of PRISMA 2020 for systematic reviews of prevalence (2023)

PRISMA-EGMs – PRISMA-Evidence and Gap Maps (2023)

PRISMA-App – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: An extension for reviewing commercial and publicly available mobile health smartphone applications (2023)

PRISMA for NMA update – Updating PRISMA for Network meta-analysis (2024)

PRISMA-P Update – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (2024)

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Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis – Protocols for Children (PRISMA-PC) (registered 6 November 2014, updated 14 June 2022)

An official extension of the PRISMA-P Statement defining standard protocol items for systematic review in children is currently under development. A Delphi process to generate possible reporting standards for PRISMA-PC and a consensus meeting have taken place in 2015. The evidence synthesis, Delphi survey and international consensus have been completed. The checklists have been finalized (available on request).

In February 2022 the group updated their website saying that PRISMA-PC Statement and Explanation and Elaboration document will be published in Q2 2022.

Read the project summary (PDF)
Details on this project can be found here: PRISMA-Children (C) and PRISMA-Protocol for Children (P-C) Extensions: a study protocol for the development of guidelines for the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of newborn and child health research.
Visit the EnRICH Website
Contact: Dr Martin Offringa, martin.offringa@sickkids.ca

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Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis – Reporting for Children (PRISMA-C) (registered 6 November 2014, updated in 14 June 2022)

An official extension of the PRISMA 2009 Statement defining standard reporting items for systematic review in children is currently under development. A Delphi process to generate possible reporting standards for PRISMA-C and a consensus meeting have taken place in 2015. The evidence synthesis, Delphi survey and international consensus have been completed. The checklists have been finalized (available on request).

In February 2022 the group updated their website saying that PRISMA-PC Statement and Explanation and Elaboration document will be published in Q2 2022.

Read the project summary (PDF)
Details on this project can be found here: PRISMA-Children (C) and PRISMA-Protocol for Children (P-C) Extensions: a study protocol for the development of guidelines for the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of newborn and child health research.
Visit the EnRICH Website
Contact: Dr Martin Offringa, martin.offringa@sickkids.ca

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PRISMA-RR: an extension to PRISMA for rapid reviews (registered 4 November 2015; updated July 2018)

This reporting guideline will address reporting for rapid reviews, including those with analogous terminology (e.g., rapid evidence synthesis, rapid knowledge synthesis).

September 2017 update – stage 1 of the guidance is for rapid reviews that include primary studies. Following the completion of stage 1, guidance for rapid reviews that include secondary evidence, such as systematic reviews, will be developed and aligned with the development of the PRIOR reporting guideline (currently under development).

July 2018 update – the development of the reporting guideline is being undertaken in tandem with the update of PRISMA, http://prisma-statement.org/News

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PRISMA-Ethics: an extension to PRISMA for SRs on ethics literature (registered 4 October 2018)

This PRISMA extension will take into account the characteristics of systematic reviews (SRs) on literature about ethically sensitive topics. The methods for search and selection will be very close to those applied in “traditional”, i.e. quantitative SRs, using empirical literature. But as SRs on ethically sensitive topics primarily involve conceptual and qualitative analyses and syntheses, these particularities need to be reflected in a reporting guideline (a more comprehensive definition of the scope/the type of literature will be given in the upcoming publication). For the extension of PRISMA, the PRISMA, as well as the ENTREQ statement for qualitative research, are used as a basis.  The group plans to publish the reporting guideline as an open-access paper in the Summer of 2019.

In a constituting session, the executive group agreed on the following steps:

Consensus discussion on a PRISMA checklist extension for ethics literature based on PRISMA and ENTREQ (face-to-face workshop and teleconference) – already done;
Consensus discussion on explanation and elaboration texts for the items on the adapted PRISMA checklist (written and verbal exchange/teleconference) – in the process of drafting texts for explanation and elaboration; the first discussion round planned was to take place in December 2018;
Finalisation of the checklist but also of the explanations and elaborations texts. The planned face-to-face workshop will particularly incorporate the feedback of potential users of the reporting guideline, such as editors and researchers, as well as potential users of published SRs on ethics literature, e.g. clinicians, policymakers, and ethics guideline developers – planned for 2019.
Contact: Hannes Kahrass (Kahrass.Hannes@mh-hannover.de), Marcel Mertz (Mertz.Marcel@mh-hannover.de), and Daniel Strech (daniel.strech@charite.de)

 

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Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses – PRISMA Extension of Preclinical In Vivo Animal Experiments (registered 12 March 2020)

This reporting guideline is an extension to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), specifically for systematic reviews research performed in preclinical, in vivo animal models. The guideline development will occur in five phases: 1) Group establishment to help and provide expertise in the guideline development; 2) A cross-sectional study to describe the characteristics of and assess the reporting of contemporary preclinical systematic reviews; 3) Delphi Exercise; 4) Written Guidance, and 5) Dissemination.
The Core Group (n=14 to date) will lead the development and dissemination of the guidelines and includes members with expertise in various disciplines pertinent to guideline development, systematic reviews and meta-analysis, and in vivo animal experiments. This group formed in Fall 2018 and finalized its membership in February 2020. The group have performed an environmental scan by systematically searching the literature for published preclinical systematic reviews and have identified and synthesized the characteristics of these reviews in Summer 2019. The Delphi will start in Summer 2020 and finish in Fall 2020. The group aims to finalize the guidelines and have the results of the environmental scan and conference proceedings submitted for publication by Winter 2021.

The protocol for the overall project has been publicly posted on Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g4kqz/. Within this project, the protocols for the cross-sectional study and the Delphi study have been posted as project components.
Contact: Dr Manoj M. Lalu, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Clinical Epidemiology Program) Ottawa, Canada, mlalu@toh.ca

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PRISMA-COSMIN – Recommendations for Reporting Systematic Reviews of Outcome Measurement Instruments  (registered 22 September 2020)

The COnsensus based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) initiative developed outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) appraisal tools to aid in the selection of the most suitable OMIs for health research and clinical practice settings. However, recent evidence shows that key information, such as methods for evaluating the OMI measurement properties, is often missing in the reports of studies. Clear and complete reporting of the knowledge synthesis and OMI appraisal process is essential to ensure that the best OMIs have been selected and are fit-for-purpose and that health measurements are valid, reliable, patient-centred, and are comparable across research studies and health systems. A group from Canada aims to improve the quality of the reporting of systematic reviews conducted to assess OMIs. They will base the reporting guideline on the PRISMA checklist. The development will include a scoping review to generate candidate items, a three-round international Delphi study with expert consensus meeting, content validation, feasibility, and reliability testing of PRISMA-COSMIN across key areas of health research, and dissemination. The group plans to finish and publish the open-access document in 2023.

Protocol available at https://osf.io/rvd6z/ and published in BMC Systematic Reviews.

Contact: Nancy Butcher and Martin Offringa. Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Paediatrics and University of Toronto/Institute of Health Policy. E-mail: enrich.network@sickkids.ca

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Minimum standards for content and format of meta-data and data reporting in systematic reviews (registered 14 October 2020)

Reporting transparency many times involves making available sets of data that are related to the main research report. The way these materials are uploaded to online platforms interferes with the discoverability by systematic reviewers. With that in mind, this group is proposing a guideline with a list of minimum requirements for the formatting of files, especially regarding meta-data, to allow machine readability and reuse. They plan to set standards for the reporting of all decisions taken during the study retrieval, selection, data extraction, and critical appraisal processes of a systematic review. For the description of the content and format, they want to be able to specify the file format (e.g. .txt, .ris, .csv, .json as opposed to .pdf, .docx., or .accdb) and the internal structure of the document (e.g. field tags for .ris formats, which field tag should contain eligibility decision tags at each level of screening). A longer-term aim is to encourage that data to have doi numbers and are freely accessible (FAIR/Open Data) through data archiving.

The guidance will apply to all systematic reviews, irrespective of the discipline, including reviews in sustainability, climate change, healthcare, international development, environmental science, social welfare, etc.

The group is planning a Delphi-style process and a future multidisciplinary expert panel to reach a consensus.

Contact: Neal Haddaway, Stockholm Environment Institute. E-mail: neal.haddaway@sei.org

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PRISMA for LSR – Extension of PRISMA 2020 for living systematic reviews (registered 25 May 2021; updated 11 April 2022)

This project aims to develop an extension of the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 statement for living systematic reviews (LSRs), defined as a systematic review that is continually updated, incorporating new evidence as it becomes available.

The group has already started a review of PRISMA-2020 focused on what items apply or should be added to the context of living systematic reviews. A two-round Delphi survey and a consensus panel are planned. They aim to publish the statement and an explanation and elaboration documents early in 2022, as open access documents if funding can be secured for that.

The authors have published a protocol that is currently under open peer review at the F1000 journal: https://f1000research.com/articles/11-109

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PRISMA-AI – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – Artificial Intelligence Extension (registered 3 May 2022)

With the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the last two decades, enthusiasm and adoption of this technology in medicine have steadily increased. However, the way such methodologies and results are reported varies widely and the readability of clinical studies using AI can be challenging to the general clinician. The number of systematic reviews on the topic, with or without meta-analysis, is also increasing dramatically, yet the quality of reporting is still poor and heterogeneous. 

The PRISMA-AI extension development focuses on standardising the reporting of methods and results for clinical studies using AI, reflecting the most relevant technical details required for future reproducibility, and the clinician ability to critically follow and ascertain the relevant outcomes of such studies.

The group leading the project will identify particular requirements for the reporting of AI and related topics (namely machine learning, deep learning, neuronal networking) in systematic reviews, and reach consensus among multi-specialty experts and the lead authors of PRISMA, STARD-AI, CONSORT-AI, SPIRIT-AI, TRIPOD-AI, PROBAST-AI, CLAIM-AI and DECIDE-AI.

The development of this PRISMA extension will follow the steps described in the EQUATOR Toolkit for reporting guidelines, including literature review and consensus exercises. The group plans to publish the PRISMA-AI statement as an open-access document in 2022, and also have it translated to Spanish, French and Chinese.

 

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PRISMA-Nut – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of NUTritional interventions (registered 14 June 2022)

This evidence-based and consensus-driven reporting guideline is being developed for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of nutritional interventions. Although almost all of the elements in the PRISMA Statement apply equally to the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of nutritional interventions, some elements might need to be adapted, tailored or extended.

The “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of NUTritional interventions” is an official PRISMA development aiming at consolidating existing – and potentially new – guidance for reporting such studies. It will provide examples of good reporting for each item in the final consolidated checklist, with explanations for each adaptation or additional item.

Interested stakeholders should contact the project team to get involved in the development and dissemination of this reporting guideline.

The project is also registered in the Open Science Framework platform and the detailed project can be found here.

 

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PRISMA-QES – PRISMA Extension for Qualitative Evidence Syntheses (registered 14 November 2022)

The leaders of this project plan to develop an extension for PRISMA reporting guideline designed to help authors report qualitative evidence syntheses, “PRISMA-QES”. An existing reporting guideline, ENTREQ (Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research), according to the developers of PRISMA-QES, “was published in 2012; it [ENTREQ] is now out of date and needs updating. It was not developed using a consensus-based study to decide the reporting criteria, which is good practice for developing reporting guidelines.” They also acknowledge the existence of other reporting guidelines potentially overlapping, but state that the new development will fill gaps: “The eMERGe reporting guidance is specific to the QES methodology of meta-ethnography and its complex analytic synthesis – it does not apply to the many other types of QES. The RAMESES I (Realist And Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards) reporting guidelines are for mixed methods syntheses rather than QES.”

The project involves a literature review, workshops for stakeholders consultation, drafting initial items for the checklist, an online Delphi exercise and a final workshop for consensus. The group is seeking funding for the development. They plan to publish PRISMA-QES statement between 2025 and 2026, as an open access document.

 

PRITEM – Preferred Reporting Items for Evidence Mapping (registered 1 December 2022)

A group of researchers in China identified the need to develop reporting guidance for studies that mapping the evidence available in medical sciences. Evidence mapping describes the quantity, design and characteristics of research in broad topic areas, in contrast to systematic reviews, which usually address narrowly-focused research questions. Evidence mapping identify high-priority research questions.

According to the project leaders, the development protocol of PRITEM Statement, including 12 phases, is to be published soon, and the literature review has already been completed.

 

INCREASE – Increasing transparency and Reproducibility of data Extraction for evidence Synthesis research (registered 24 January 2023)

This project aims to develop an reporting checklist in order to improve the reproducibility of data extraction for evidence synthesis researches (like systematic reviews), where “raw material” from original studies is transferred to reviews that serve as the basis for evidence synthesis. The reporting guideline under development will allow authors to write up the manuscript section related to the data extraction procedures.

The project leaders are reviewing current existing guidelines, tutorials, and handbooks for evidence syntheses for potential reporting guidance for data extraction. They will discuss the materials internally and build a draft checklist, which will undergo two rounds of Delphi surveys among methodologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, clinicians, journal editors, and review authors for further discussion and amendments. Finally, an online meeting with the core members will finalise the checklist. The group also plans to perform trials of the checklist to verify whether it works, and update the checklist if necessary.

The development starts in March 2023, with funding from the Ministry of Education and the College of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, China. A protocol will be published soon after. The results are to be published as an open-access paper.

 

PRISMA Extension for Systematic Reviews Using GRADE (registered 1 February 2023)

Members of the GRADE Working Group, GRADE Guidance Group and US GRADE Network are extending the PRISMA reporting guideline with the support of the original PRISMA authors. The plan is to develop an extension of the current PRISMA reporting checklist specific for systematic reviews that use GRADE to assess the certainty of evidence, and drawing on established methods for publishing GRADE guidance. Biweekly virtual meetings of the core group will be held, and smaller groups will discuss candidate items for the checklist. A consensus process will be used to identify those deemed critical for transparent GRADE reporting. The checklist will be presented in GRADE meetings to be revised and approved.

Development started on November 2022 and the group plans to publish the statement in several journals, preferably as open access papers (depending on journal).

 

PRINMA-A — Preferred Reporting Items for Network Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Statement (registered 15 March 2023)

With funding from the National Natural Science Foundation in China, a group of researchers in evidence-based Chinese medicine at Lanzhou University is developing a reporting guideline for studies including network meta-analysis (NMA). According to the group, “A significant advantage of NMA is the ability to consider comparisons of all interventions in the study, including evidence for direct and indirect comparisons”. The new tool aims at helping authors to repor acupuncture-related NMA studies.

The work started in June 2022, with a literature review. A Delphi survey is planned for March 2023, and next steps will be consensus meetings, writing of the statement and explanation and elaboration documents, publication of the reporting guideline as an open-access document, and dissemination.

 

META-TTE – Transparent reporting of meta-analyses of time-to-event outcomes based on aggregate data from randomised trials of interventions (registered 27 April 2023)

Poor reporting of time-to-event analyses in trial publications, including outcome definitions, general and time-to-event specific methods and study characteristics can hinder the development of time-to-event meta-analyses. 

To address these limitations and to improve the reporting of such meta-analyses, a group from Germany is developing a reporting guideline to be used em conjunction with PRISMA, but specifically focused on time-to-event outcomes. 

The group is conducting an online open survey among experts in evidence synthesis, methodologists and statisticians to identify and confirm relevant reporting items and their definition. After a first round of feedback, they will invite participants for consultatory calls, to discuss discrepancies.

The group has registered a protocol at OSF: https://osf.io/j5bmw. They plan to publish the reporting guidelines in late 2024, as open-access documents if funding becomes available for that.

 

 

PRISMA-prev – Extension of PRISMA 2020 for systematic reviews of prevalence (registered 14 August 2023)

Prevalence is an important epidemiological metric that allows for the comprehension and comparison of health conditions across populations. Prevalence estimates are frequently synthesised in systematic reviews, which themselves are being published with increased frequency. Members of the Prevalence Estimates Reviews – Systematic Review Methodology Working Group, an international academic group which aims to develop and disseminate methods for systematic reviews and meta-analysis of prevalence, started developing this PRISMA extension for systematic reviews  of prevalence. The group has already published a review showing that a high proportion of information remain unreported in this type of reviews, such as specification of a study protocol, presentation of the strength of evidence in the findings summary, or transformation methods for proportions results. 

Considering that the evidence from the published review does not cover the period after the publication of PRISMA 2020, the group plans to conduct another review to identify systematic reviews of prevalence published from January 1st, 2023, onwards. The development team also declares that  they will include members from the PRISMA Executive, who have expressed interest in participating in the project. They plan to publish the reporting guideline  in 2025 as an open-access document.

 

PRISMA-EGMs – PRISMA-Evidence and Gap Maps (registered 14 September 2023)

According to the developers of this reporting guideline, evidence and gap maps (EGM) are  an approach used in evidence synthesis, and aim to describe the body of evidence in contrast to a synthesis of evidence addressing a specific topic. EGMs differ from mapping and scoping reviews, requiring an a priori development of a coding matrix, and resulting in visual and interactive maps. The developers state that the existing guidance (PRISMA-Scr) “does not cover the unique features of EGMs and it therefore warrants a separate guideline.” 

The group is developing a scoping review on the methods used in EGMs. They plan to conduct a Delphi survey including review methodologists and experts in evidence gaps in the panel. They plan to publish the reporting guideline until 2025, as an open access document, and they have funding from Newcastle University for the development.

 

PRISMA-App – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: An extension for reviewing commercial and publicly available mobile health smartphone applications (registered 22 November 2023)

Mobile health smartphone applications (mHealth apps) are increasingly being used in healthcare to support professionals in their clinical practice or help patients self-manage their conditions. They can, for example, help patients register the site and intensity of pain in different parts of the body, or collect data on mood or specific health-related events. However, not all apps are equal in quality and functionality. 

Researchers have been conducting and publishing systematic reviews of commercial and publicly available mHealth apps to identify them and to assess their quality, functionality and technical features. Systematic reviews of mHealth apps cover commercially available products, rather than articles reported on in the scientific literature. There is no guidance for researchers nor publishers on how to report them, leading to variation in how authors report their review for publication, with some omitting crucial information, and to uncertainty about the robustness of reviews, which may compromise their trustworthiness and usefulness. Ultimately, this contributes to research waste and misinterpretation by patients and healthcare professionals. 

Given the similarity to systematic literature reviews and, as many authors of mHealth app reviews already report their work using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline, a group from the University of Manchester is developing an extension of the PRISMA reporting guideline for mHealth apps. They have permission from the PRISMA group to develop this extension.

The authors, supported by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for Greater Manchester, started with a scoping review of the literature and they plan to conduct a Delphi study and a consensus meeting to decide on the items to be reported. A protocol is being drafted for publication. The group plans to publish the reporting guideline materials, as open access documents, in 2025.

 

PRISMA for NMA update – Updating PRISMA for Network meta-analysis (registered 5 January 2024)

The extension of PRISMA dedicated to network meta-analysis (NMA) has been published in 2015. In 2020, the PRISMA statement was updated to reflect advances in the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews. These advances have yet to be incorporated into the PRISMA extension for NMA. Other  advancements in NMA methodology also necessitate a significant update to PRISMA-NMA.  

The group responsible for this update will conduct a scoping review to develop a list of items for potential inclusion in the extension, then run a Delphi survey, a consensus meeting and a pilot test. They plan to publish the checklist together with the explanation and elaboration (E&E) document updating PRISMA-NMA. A patient partner is involved in the Steering Committee. The project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The updated PRISMA-NMA will be published open access in 2026.

 


PRISMA-P Update – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (registered 29 January 2024)

PRISMA-P (“PRISMA for protocols”) was initially published in 2015. Since then, the field of systematic reviews and meta-analyses has expanded, new methodological and reporting practices have evolved, and the role of protocols in clinical research has been increasingly debated. The original PRISMA guideline from 2009 for completed systematic reviews was updated and published as PRISMA 2020. 

The PRISMA-P 2025 steering group plans to update the reporting guideline for protocols for systematic reviews, harmonising it with PRISMA 2020. The PRISMA-P 2025 will provide guidance for the minimum content necessary for the protocol of a systematic review.

The update will be developed in six stages:

  1. reviews – supporting projects including a scoping review identifying published comments and suggestions for modifications on PRISMA-P 2015, and an empirical study analysing the adherence to PRISMA-P 2015 among systematic review protocols stating to have used the reporting guideline
  2. draft – using the existing PRISMA-P 2015 reporting guideline as a starting point, an initial draft of guideline items will be developed based on the evidence identified in the supporting projects together with items included in PRISMA 2020 and relevant PRISMA extensions. 
  3. survey – an online survey among a large international survey panel to help decide on items that could be modified, added to, or removed from  PRISMA-P 2015
  4. refinement – a consensus meeting with an advisory group
  5. write-up – drafting the updated list of items 
  6. publication – two manuscripts: the PRISMA-P 2025 guideline statement and the explanation and elaboration (E&E) document.

The study protocol is under development, and no funding was obtained so far. The leaders plan to publish the update as an open access document.

 

Page last updated on 29 January 2024