Table 3 Map of available guidance for the conduct of overviews of reviews
Topic | ARCHE | KCE | CSU | CChile | CHF | CMIMG | EPOC | CPHG | DukeU | EPPI | GCU | HarvU | JBI | KCL | NEST | NOKC | SUR | TCD | UBirm | UConn | UCyp | UOxf | WJNR | WHU | Frequency effect size (of 24) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Guidance related to the context of conducting an overview of reviews | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 What types of questions can be answered using the overview format? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 9 | |||||||||||||||
 Deciding between conducting an overview and a systematic review | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 7 | |||||||||||||||||
 Items to consider before deciding to conduct an overview | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 14 | ||||||||||
 Author team composition and roles | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
 Target audience of the overview | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 13 | |||||||||||
Guidance related to the process of conducting an overview of reviews | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Developing and registering an overview protocol | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
 Specifying the scope | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 13 | |||||||||||
 Searching for systematic reviews (and potentially primary studies) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 18 | ||||||
 Selecting systematic reviews for inclusion (and potentially primary studies) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 20 | ||||
 Should an overview include non-Cochrane systematic reviews? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Assessing the quality of included systematic reviews | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 20 | ||||
 Collecting and presenting data on descriptive characteristics of the included systematic reviews | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 11 | |||||||||||||
 Collecting and presenting data on the quality of primary studies contained within the systematic reviews | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 10 | ||||||||||||||
 Collecting, analyzing, and presenting outcome data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 21 | |||
 Assessing the certainty/quality of the body of evidence | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 13 | |||||||||||
 Interpreting outcome data and drawing conclusions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 8 | ||||||||||||||||
 Updating the overview | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Intensity effect size (of 17) | 2 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 17 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 16 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 7 | |