title: Reporting and methodological qualities of published surgical meta-analyses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the overall qualities of published surgical meta-analysis and predictive factors for high qualities.
  
  
  METHODS
  All meta-analyses pertinent to surgical procedures published in year 2013 were selected from PubMed and EMBASE. The characteristics of the included meta-analyses were collected, and their reporting and methodologic qualities were assessed by the PRISMA (27 items) and AMSTAR (11 items) checklists, respectively. Independent predictive factors associated with these two qualities were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hundred ninety-seven meta-analyses representing 10 surgical subspecialties were included. The mean PRISMA and AMSTAR adherences (by items) were 22.2 ± 2.4 and 7.8 ± 1.2, respectively, and a positive linear correlation was found between them with an R(2) of 0.793. Those meta-analyses conducted by the first authors having meta-analysis publication previously had significantly higher reporting and methodologic qualities than those who did not (P = 0.002 and P = 0.001). Meanwhile, there were also significant differences in these two qualities between studies published in Q1-ranked and (Q2 + Q3)-ranked journals as rated by the SCImago indicator (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001). On multivariate analyses, region of origin (non-Asia vs. Asia), publishing experience of first authors (ever vs. never), rank of publishing journals (Q1 vs. Q2 + Q3), and preregistration (presence vs. absence) were independently associated with superior reporting and methodologic qualities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reporting and methodologic qualities of current surgical meta-analyses remained suboptimal, and first authors' experience and ranking of publishing journals were independently associated with both qualities. Preregistration might be an effective measure to improve the quality of meta-analyses, which deserves more attention from future study conductors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, No. 301 Middle Yanchang Road, Shanghai 200072, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Bo
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China; Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Wan-Yee
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 5 East 98th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: Myron E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Guo-Qiang
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Shu-Yang
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Nan
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Meng-Chao
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, No. 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China; Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 5 East 98th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10029, USA. Electronic address: ehbh2015@126.com.
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing; D012107:Research Design; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative
keywords: AMSTAR; Meta-analysis; Methodologic quality; PRISMA; Reporting quality; Surgery