title: An audit of best evidence topic reviews in the International Journal of Surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  IJS launched best evidence topic reviews (BETs) in 2011, when the guidelines for conducting and reporting these reviews were published in the journal.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (1) Audit the adherence of all published BETs in IJS to these guidelines. (2) Assess the reach and impact of BETs published in IJS.
  
  
  METHODS
  BETs published between 2011 and February 2014 were identified from http://www.journal-surgery.net/. Standards audited included: completeness of description of study attrition, and independent verification of searches. Other extracted data included: relevant subspecialty, duration between searches and publication, and between acceptance and publication. Each BET's number of citations (http://scholar.google.co.uk/), number of tweets (http://www.altmetric.com/) and number of Researchgate views (https://www.researchgate.net/) were recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-four BETs were identified: the majority, 19 (56%), relating to upper gastrointestinal surgery and none to cardiothoracic, orthopaedic or paediatric surgery. Twenty-nine BETs (82%) fully described study attrition. Twenty-one (62%) had independently verified search results. The mean times from literature searching to publication and acceptance to publication were 38.5 weeks and 13 days respectively. There were a mean 40 (range 0-89) Researchgate views/article, mean 2 (range 0-7) citations/article and mean 0.36 (range 0-2) tweets/article.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adherence to BET guidelines has been variable. Authors are encouraged to adhere to journal guidelines and reviewers and editors to enforce them. BETs have received similar citation levels to other IJS articles. Means of increasing the visibility of published BETs such as social media sharing, conference presentation and deposition of abstracts in public repositories should be explored. More work is required to encourage more submissions from other surgical subspecialties other than gastrointestinal specialties.
authors.affiliation: Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Castle Street, Glasgow, UK. Electronic address: bsms1491@uni.bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nigel Tapiwa
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Mabvuure
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klimach
authors.affiliation: Royal Free Hospital, Pond St. London, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eisner
authors.affiliation: Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Jeremy Neil
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
mesh_terms: D054869:Clinical Audit; D013505:Digestive System Surgical Procedures / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Altmetrics; BETs; Best evidence topic; Bestbets; EBM; Evidence based medicine