For authors
Article Types
Each evidence-synthesis format has its own reporting, protocol, methodological and supplementary-material requirements. Word counts exclude the abstract, references, tables, figure legends and supplementary files.
Systematic Review
- Main text
- Up to 6,000 words
- Abstract
- Up to 250 words
- Keywords
- 3–6 MeSH terms
- Tables and figures
- Normally up to 8 combined tables and figures
- References
- Minimum 30; no upper limit when justified
Protocol
Describe the protocol and any registration in the manuscript. Prospective registration in PROSPERO, OSF or another permanent public registry is recommended; no separate protocol upload is required at initial submission.
Reporting guidance
- PRISMA 2020
- PRISMA-S
- PRISMA-P for protocols
- Applicable PRISMA extension where relevant
Required manuscript sections
- Title page
- Structured abstract: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusions
- Declarations
- References
- Tables and figure legends
Methodological expectations
- Explicit review question and eligibility criteria
- Complete reproducible searches for every source
- Independent screening and data extraction
- Design-appropriate risk-of-bias assessment
- Pre-specified synthesis methods
- GRADE or another justified certainty framework where applicable
Supplementary materials
- Supplementary material is optional at initial submission
- Upload only material that is necessary to understand or reproduce the review and is not already included in the manuscript
Meta-Analysis
- Main text
- Up to 6,500 words
- Abstract
- Up to 250 words
- Keywords
- 3–6 MeSH terms
- Tables and figures
- Normally up to 8 combined tables and figures
- References
- Minimum 30; no upper limit when justified
Protocol
Describe the protocol and any registration in the manuscript. Prospective registration in PROSPERO, OSF or another permanent public registry is recommended; no separate protocol upload is required at initial submission.
Reporting guidance
- PRISMA 2020
- PRISMA-S
- PRISMA-NMA for network meta-analysis
- PRISMA-DTA for diagnostic accuracy
- PRISMA-IPD for individual participant data
Required manuscript sections
- Title page
- Structured abstract: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusions
- Declarations
- References
- Tables and figure legends
Methodological expectations
- Pre-specified effect measures and outcomes
- Justification of fixed-effect or random-effects models
- Assessment of heterogeneity and small-study effects
- Sensitivity and subgroup analyses
- Certainty-of-evidence assessment
- Reproducible analytic code
Supplementary materials
- Supplementary material is optional at initial submission
- Upload only material that is necessary to understand or reproduce the analysis and is not already included in the manuscript