The basic evidence based research steps are:

• Begin with a problem or issue stated as a question. 1 2
• Plan your search for the levels of evidence you need. 3
• Search for secondary or primary sources and primary evidence. 4 5
• Evaluate your results. 6 7
• Implement your findings. 8 9
• Publish your findings to build the evidence base. 10

Appendixes

References

About the tool

Reporting meta-analyses of observational studies (11)

Checklist for authors, editors, and reviewers of meta-analyses of observational studies

Reporting of background should include:

• Problem definition
• Hypothesis statement
• Description of study outcome(s)
• Type of exposure or intervention used
• Type of study designs
• Study population

Reporting of search strategy should include:

• Qualifications of searchers (eg, librarians and investigators)
• Search strategy, including time period included in the synthesis and keywords
• Effort to include all available studies, including contact with authors
• Databases and registries searched
• Search software use, name and version, including special features used (eg, explosion)
• Use of hand searching (eg, reference lists of obtained articles)
• List of citations located and those excluded, including justification
• Method of addressing articles published in languages other than English
• Method of handling abstracts and unpublished studies
• Description of any contact with authors

Reporting of methods should include:

• Description of relevance or appropriateness of studies assembled for assessing the hypothesis to be tested
• Rationale for the selection and coding of date (eg, sound clinical principles or convenience)
• Documentation of how data were classified and coded (eg, multiple raters, blinding, and interrater reliability)
• Assessment of confounding (eg, comparability of cases and controls in studies where appropriate)
• Assessment of study quality, including blinding of quality assessors; stratification or regression on possible predictors of study results
• Assessment of heterogeneity
• Description of statistical methods (eg, complete description of fixed or random effects models, justification of whether the chosen models account for predictors of study results, dose-response models, or cumulative meta-analysis ) in sufficient detail to be replicated

Reporting of results should include:

• Graphic summarizing individual study estimates an overall estimate
• Table giving descriptive information for each study included
• Results of sensitivity testing (eg, subgroup analysis)
• Indication of statistical uncertainty of findings

Reporting of discussion should include:

• Quantitative assessment of bias (eg, exclusion of non-English-language citations)
• Assessment of quality of included studies

Reporting of conclusions should include:

• Consideration of alternative explanations for observed results
• Generalization of the conclusions (ie, appropriate for the data presented and within the domain of the literature review)
• Guidelines for future research
• Disclosure of funding source

 

Links to help you prepare your publication or presentation:

Nurse Author & Editor Newsletter http://www.nurseauthoreditor.com/forauthors.asp

CEBM Presentation Prescription www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1530

CONSORT: transparent reporting of trials  www.consort-statement.org

BMJ http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/about-bmj/evidence-based-publishing

 

Other "Reporting of research checklists" National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research - KT Library www.ncddr.org/ktinfocenter/checklists.html

 

 

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