Discussion
Cochrane Interactive Learning: module 8 - reporting the review
| Standard | Rationale and elaboration | Resources | |
| R100 | Discussion headings | Highly desirable | |
| Include the standard RevMan headings when writing the Discussion. | Five standard headings are included in RevMan (‘Summary of main results’, ‘Overall completeness and applicability of evidence’, ‘Certainty of the evidence’, ‘Potential biases in the review process, ‘Agreements and disagreements with other studies or reviews’). | See Handbook 4.5 | |
| R101 | Limitations | Mandatory | |
| Discuss limitations of the review at study and outcome level (e.g. regarding risk of bias), and at review level (e.g. incomplete identification of studies, reporting bias). |
Review authors must explicitly state the limitations of their review. One aspect that is easily overlooked is that of adverse effects. In particular, if the review methods do not allow for detection of serious or rare adverse events, or both, the review authors must explicitly state this as a limitation. Additional considerations here include currency and completeness of the search, completeness of data collection processes, assumptions made regarding classification of interventions, outcomes or subgroups, and methods used to account for missing data. MECIR conduct standard 74: Consider the potential impact of reporting biases on the results of the review or the meta-analyses it contains. |
