Table 1 SPIDER table of study inclusion and exclusion criteria

Sample

• Surgical teams (any members including surgeons, trainee surgeons, anaesthetists, surgical nurses, surgical pharmacists etc.)

• Secondary care setting including wards; out-patient clinics; theatres etc.

• Non-surgical specialities

• Other care settings, e.g. primary care; dentists

• Veterinary studies

Phenomenon of interest

• Antimicrobial/antibiotic prescribing behaviour (treatment and/or prophylaxis)

• Prescribing behaviour related to other medication classes

Design

• Qualitative or mixed-method studies reporting primary qualitative data collected using qualitative methods (e.g. through direct observation; focus groups or interviews)

• Studies that report quantitative data only including questionnaire studies with open-ended free text questions

Evaluation

• Qualitative analysis of antimicrobial prescribing behaviour (using any qualitative evaluation, e.g. grounded theory; and framework analysis)

• Studies that evaluate using quantitative methods only

• Studies that do not explicitly state the method of analysis

Research type

• Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Full text available

• English language

• Reviews; protocols; theoretical work; editorials; opinion pieces and grey literature

• Non-English language