title: Analysis of the time and workers needed to conduct systematic reviews of medical interventions using data from the PROSPERO registry.
abstract: To summarise logistical aspects of recently completed systematic reviews that were registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) registry to quantify the time and resources required to complete such projects.
  
  
  
  Meta-analysis.
  
  
  
  All of the 195 registered and completed reviews (status from the PROSPERO registry) with associated publications at the time of our search (1 July 2014).
  
  
  
  All authors extracted data using registry entries and publication information related to the data sources used, the number of initially retrieved citations, the final number of included studies, the time between registration date to publication date and number of authors involved for completion of each publication. Information related to funding and geographical location was also recorded when reported.
  
  
  
  The mean estimated time to complete the project and publish the review was 67.3 weeks (IQR=42). The number of studies found in the literature searches ranged from 27 to 92 020; the mean yield rate of included studies was 2.94% (IQR=2.5); and the mean number of authors per review was 5, SD=3. Funded reviews took significantly longer to complete and publish (mean=42 vs 26 weeks) and involved more authors and team members (mean=6.8 vs 4.8 people) than those that did not report funding (both p<0.001).
  
  
  
  Systematic reviews presently take much time and require large amounts of human resources. In the light of the ever-increasing volume of published studies, application of existing computing and informatics technology should be applied to decrease this time and resource burden. We discuss recently published guidelines that provide a framework to make finding and accessing relevant literature less burdensome.
authors.affiliation: Science and Technology Honors Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.|Office of Energetics, Dean's Office, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Borah
authors.affiliation: Office of Energetics, Dean's Office, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.|Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Office of Energetics, Dean's Office, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.|Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Patrice L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Capers
authors.affiliation: Office of Energetics, Dean's Office, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.|Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Kaiser
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D011643:Publishing; D012042:Registries; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: PROSPERO registry; metadata; search methods; systematic reviews