Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) in systematic reviews: reporting guideline

By M. Campbell, J. McKenzie, A. Sowden, S. Katikireddi, S. Brennan, S. Ellis, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, R. Ryan, S. Shepperd, James Thomas and 2 more. British medical journal, 2020

3,632 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In systematic reviews that lack data amenable to meta-analysis, alternative synthesis methods are commonly used, but these methods are rarely reported. This lack of transparency in the methods can cast doubt on the validity of the review findings. The Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guideline has been developed to guide clear reporting in reviews of interventions in which alternative synthesis methods to meta-analysis of effect estimates are used. This article describes the development of the SWiM guideline for the synthesis of quantitative data of intervention effects and presents the nine SWiM reporting items with accompanying explanations and examples.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7cac0aba6b7213478cf31c047d49453202135600

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. David Moher
2. Matthew J. Page
3. Larissa Shamseer
4. L. Stewart
5. Tianjing Li
6. J. Tetzlaff
7. Luke A. McGuinness
8. Patrick M. M. Bossuyt

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Matthew J. Page
2. David Moher
3. J. Yepes‐Nuñez
4. Marta Romero-García
5. G. Úrrutia
6. S. Alonso-Fernández
7. Andrea C. Tricco
8. Khalid Mahmood

In Statistics and Probability

1. David Moher
2. Matthew J. Page
3. Larissa Shamseer
4. I. Boutron
5. J. Yepes‐Nuñez
6. G. Úrrutia
7. Marta Romero-García
8. S. Alonso-Fernández

Citations in the corpus

• Augmented, Mixed, and Virtual Reality-Based Head-Mounted Devices for Medical Education: Systematic Review (2021, methodology): “Data synthesis is reported according to the SWiM (Synthesis Without Meta-analysis) reporting guideline [29].”
• The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. (2021, methodology): “Where there is relevant content from other reporting guidelines, we reference these guidelines within the items in the explanation and elaboration paper 41 (such as PRISMA-Search 42 in items 6 and 7, Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guideline 27 in item 13d).”
• The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. (2021, methodology): “Where there is relevant content from other reporting guidelines, we reference these guidelines within the items in the explanation and elaboration paper [41] (such as PRISMA-Search [42] in items 6 and 7, Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guideline [27] in item 13d).”
• The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews (2021, methodology): “Where there is relevant content from other reporting guidelines, we reference these guidelines within the items in the explanation and elaboration paper [41] (such as PRISMA-Search [42] in items 6 and 7, Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guideline [27] in item 13d).”