title: Evidence-based practice: how to evaluate what you read.
abstract: Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are affected by the studies that are included or excluded. A number of biases are common including excluding unpublished data, non English language publications, and non indexed articles. In addition there can be a differential impact based on the quality and comparability of studies. In this article we review the potential significance of these biases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. krish001@mc.duke.edu
authors.forename: K Ranga Rama
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Krishnan
mesh_terms: D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*