title: Reporting standards for literature searches and report inclusion criteria: making research syntheses more transparent and easy to replicate.
abstract: A complete description of the literature search, including the criteria used for the inclusion of reports after they have been located, used in a research synthesis or meta-analysis is critical if subsequent researchers are to accurately evaluate and reproduce a synthesis' methods and results. Based on previous guidelines and new suggestions, we present a set of focused and detailed standards for reporting the methods used in a literature search. The guidelines cover five search strategies: reference database searches, journal and bibliography searches, searches of the reference lists of reports, citation searches, and direct contact searches. First, we bring together all the unique recommendations made in existing guidelines for research synthesis. Second, we identify gaps in reporting standards for search strategies. Third, we address these gaps by providing new reporting recommendations. Our hope is to facilitate successful evaluation and replication of research synthesis results.
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Kayla M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Alison C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Koenka
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Carmen E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moshontz
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Harris
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D056808:Biostatistics / Q000379:methods; D019992:Databases as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017408:Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: guidelines; literature search; meta‐analysis; research synthesis