Priority III Methods of Rapid Reviews Question Verification Form

The purpose of the Question Verification Protocol is to enable Priority Setting Partnerships (PSPs) to clearly describe the process they employed to verify the uncertainty of their questions, before commending prioritisation.

The JLA requires PSPs to be transparent and accountable in defining their own scope and process. This will enable researchers and other stakeholders to understand how individual PSPs have ascertained that their questions are unanswered, and any limitations therein.

Name of the PSP

PRioRiTy III - Methods of Rapid Reviews

Please describe the scope of the PSP

The Priority III PSP aims to identify the top 10 unanswered research questions regarding how we plan, do, and share the results of rapid reviews. Questions submitted in the initial online survey were considered in scope if they related to the planning, doing and sharing the results of rapid reviews OR systematic reviews within the healthcare setting. Questions were considered out of scope if they;

• Did not fit with the scope of the project (planning, doing and sharing the results of rapid reviews within the healthcare setting)
• Asked for information or advice

Too broad, unclear or unrelated to or off topic

Please provide a brief overview of your approach to verifying the uncertainty of your questions

A decision was taken by the Priority III steering group that a question would be verified as unanswered if a synthesis gap was apparent following a search of all relevant systematic reviews in the past 3 years. If evidence was found that a question had been entirely answered by an existing systematic review, the quality of that systematic review would have been evaluated.

Please list the type(s) of evidence you used to verify your questions as unanswered

A search strategy for use in Pubmed was formulated by an information specialist member of the Priority III steering group. Questions were verified as unanswered if a synthesis gap was apparent following a search of all relevant systematic reviews in the past 3 years. A search for research recommendations by the Cochrane Rapid Review Methods Group was also completed.

Please list the sources that you searched in order to identify that evidence

Pubmed

What search terms did you use?

((("Systematic Reviews as Topic" OR "Meta-Analysis as Topic" OR "Review Literature as Topic") AND "METHODS"[SH]) OR (("Syst Rev"[TA] OR "J Clin Epidemiol"[TA] OR "Res Synth Methods"[TA]) AND "METHODS"[SH]) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") AND "METHODS"[SH] AND ("literature search*" OR Information Storage and Retrieval)) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") AND "METHODS"[SH] AND ("plain language summar*" OR "lay summar*")) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") AND "METHODS"[SH] AND “strength of evidence")) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") "METHODS"[SH] AND "study selection")) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") AND "METHODS"[SH] AND "data extraction")) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") AND "METHODS"[SH] AND "quality assessment")) OR (("Rapid Reviews" OR "systematic reviews" OR "systematic literature reviews") AND "METHODS"[SH] AND "critical appraisal"))) NOT Protocol[TI])

Please describe the parameters of the search (eg time limits, excluded sources, country/language) and the rationale for any limitations

The search was limited to reviews and systematic reviews published in English between 01 January 2018 and 12 February 2021 (date of search). These parameters were based on the decisions of the steering group and the resources available to the project.

Names of individuals who undertook the evidence checking

Dr Claire Beecher

On what date was the question verification process completed?

02/03/2021

Any other relevant information

None