Impact of Adding a Limitation Section in Abstract of Systematic Review

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Objective: The investigators aim to evaluate the impact of a adding a  limitations  section in systematic review's abstract on result's interpretation by readers Design: randomized controlled trial with two parallel arms. Participants will be invited to participate in an online survey. Participants: Eligible participants are corresponding authors of clinical trials published between 2010 and 2012 and referenced in Medline. Intervention: The investigators will evaluate the impact of the presence of a  limitations  section in abstract of systematic review with meta- analysis. The investigators selected abstracts of meta-analysis from a sample. Selected abstract will be standardised and the treatment's name hidden. Two groups of abstract will be presented as follow: 1) abstract without  limitations  section 2) abstract with  limitations  section. The  limitations  section will be written by authors and will briefly describe the risk of bias of included studies. Selected participant are invited by e-mail to answer the survey. After reading one abstract from his/her group of randomisation they are invited to answer 5 questions about their interpretation of the results.

Official Title
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Impact of Adding a Limitation Section in Abstract of Systematic Review on Interpretation by Readers: a Randomised Controlled Trial

Conditions
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Systematic Review

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: interpretation of the abstract of the systematic review


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: corresponding authors of clinical trail indexed in pubmed with email address available
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: abstract with limitation section added<br>we add a limitation section in each selected abstract, the limitation section will focus on the quality of included studies. | Behavioral: interpretation of the abstract of the systematic review<br> <br> |
| Active Comparator: abstract without limitation section<br>We selected 30 abstracts with a conclusion in favour the experimental treatment from a sample of systematic reviews that evaluate the effect of health care intervention. | Behavioral: interpretation of the abstract of the systematic review<br> <br> |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| confidence in the results of the systematic review | we ask participants: how confident are you in the results of this study?, with the choice of answer based on a 10 points Likert scale | 1 month | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| interpretation of the quality of the systematic review | We ask participants: How confident are you in the validity of the conclusions of this study? How confident are you that the intervention A could be of benefit to patients? How confident are you that the results of this study could influence your clinical practice? Do you think that this systematic review was conducted rigorously? with the choice of answer based on a 10 points Likert scale | 1 month | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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abstract, meta-analysis, systematic review, interpretation, results, quality, bias, spin, limits, limitation, risk of bias