Integrating case reports into systematic reviews
Published in Biomedical Research
We were facing a problem: Research courses usually begin by guiding students to search for ideas and problems upon which to build their research projects. This is not an easy matter, especially when the student-researcher’s options are limited to systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Because of the intense global competition, and the power of these research methodologies and their relative ease of application (logistically and legally), finding a novel, innovative idea on which to conduct a study becomes extremely difficult—especially for newcomers to the world of medical scientific research.
Taha and I began thinking about solutions and reviewing all research methodologies until we were struck by this thought: systematic reviews are conducted only on studies of specific levels, each review collecting a set of studies that describe a large number of patients (the study sample).
But this approach carries an essential problem: for the researcher to be able to conduct a systematic review, there needs to exist a huge number of studies that have progressed up the evidence-based medicine hierarchy, reaching at least clinical trials and cohort studies. What about rare diseases, which have only a few case reports?
Here came the idea — a systematic review of case reports! We began reading and researching, and after several days, we came up with the first formulation of a research methodology that allows for conducting such a “systematic review of case reports” addressing a major problem faced by many new students and researchers, or those who lack access to direct data and primary studies.
Today, the paper explaining this methodology has been published, bearing the signature of Taha & Abuawwad, after four years of continuous research work.
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Systematic Reviews
This journal encompasses all aspects of the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews, including protocols, reviews related to a very broad definition of health, rapid reviews, updates of already completed reviews, and methods research related to the science of systematic reviews.
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The role of systematic reviews in evidence-based research
Systematic Reviews invites you to submit to our new thematic series ‘The role of systematic reviews in evidence-based research’.
Over the last two to three decades, meta-research has shown a high number of redundant and unnecessary studies being published. A possible reason could be that researchers haven’t systematically and transparently identified and used earlier similar studies to inform the justification and design of new studies, or to place new results in the context of existing evidence. The best way to avoid redundant research would be to identify or prepare a systematic review of earlier similar studies and use this systematic review to justify and inform the design of a new study, and to place new results in context. This process is called evidence-based research (EBR).
However, a systematic collection and analysis of existing meta-research related to the problem of redundant research, clearly indicates a need for further research characterizing the problem, calculating the prevalence and consequences of redundancy within different medical specialties, developing a useful and practical way to avoid redundancy and to implement the EBR approach in clinical research practice.
In this series, the Editors invite authors to submit articles that use systematic reviews in one form or another and/or have systematic reviews as a topic in relation to the concept of evidence-based research. Appropriate articles could use evidence syntheses as a method, evaluate the use of systematic reviews for justifying and designing new studies and when placing new results in the context of existing evidence, and describe or examine challenges related to the preparation of systematic reviews that will specifically affect researchers when implementing the EBR approach. Submissions can include research articles, systematic reviews, methodology and commentaries; we are not including protocols in this series.
Manuscripts should be formatted according to our submission guidelines and submitted via the online submission system. In the submission system please make sure the correct collection title is chosen on the additional information tab. Please also indicate clearly in the covering letter that the manuscript is to be considered for the ‘The role of systematic reviews in evidence-based research’ series.
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