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3237447 
Book/Book Chapter 
Standards for finding and assessing individual studies 
Institute of Medicine :: IOM 
2011 
The National Academies Press 
Washington, DC 
Finding what works in health care: Standards for systematic reviews 
81-153 
English 
has chapter(s) 7290918 Finding what works in health care: Standards for systematic reviews
This chapter addresses the identification, screening, data collection, and appraisal of the individual studies that make up a systematic review’s (SR’s) body of evidence. The committee recommends six related standards. The search should be comprehensive and include both published and unpublished research. The potential for bias to enter the selection process is significant and well documented. Without appropriate measures to counter the biased reporting of primary evidence from clinical trials and observational studies, SRs will reflect and possibly exacerbate existing distortions in the biomedical literature. The review team should document the search process and keep track of the decisions that are made for each article. Quality assurance and control are critical during data collection and extraction because of the substantial potential for errors. At least two review team members, working independently, should screen and select studies and extract quantitative and other critical data from included studies. Each eligible study should be systematically appraised for risk of bias; relevance to the study’s populations, interventions, and outcomes measures; and fidelity of the implementation of the interventions. 
Eden, J; Levit, L; Berg, A; Morton, S 
9780309164252