Automated assessment of the transparency of systematic review reports

Incomplete reporting of systematic reviews prevents users of the report from being able to fully interpret the findings and understand the limitations of the underlying evidence. Reporting guidelines such as the PRISMA 2020 statement are designed to ensure that reports of systematic reviews are reported accurately, completely and transparently. Several investigations have been done to assess how well published systematic reviews are reported against PRISMA recommendations. To date, these investigations have relied on manual coding of published articles, which is time consuming and resource intensive, and has led to studies that are limited in size and scope. Development of methods to automate the assessment of systematic reviews can scale up research about completeness of reporting, allow for rapid assessment and could be used as part of interventions to help authors improve their manuscripts before submission and speed up peer reviewers’ appraisal of manuscripts. We are seeking doctoral student(s) to contribute to projects to develop and evaluate automated methods to identify and address deficiencies in systematic review reporting. Possible projects include: (1) develop and evaluate a machine learning model that automatically appraises systematic review reporting; (2) automatically assess the reporting of a large sample of systematic reviews over an extended period of time and identify factors that might influence completeness of reporting (e.g. discipline, journal characteristics); (3) explore peer reviewers’ and journal editors’ perspectives on using automated methods to facilitate peer review of systematic review manuscripts. Candidates would need to obtain a scholarship through Monash University (Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend or Monash Graduate Scholarship, valued at $35,013 p.a (2024 rate)). To be competitive for this scholarship, you would need a first-class honours degree or equivalent in a relevant field (e.g. epidemiology, biostatistics, health sciences, psychology or social sciences) and at least one first-author publication in a Q1-ranked journal in Scimago. The closing date for scholarship applications is 4 April 2024 for international students and 31 May 2024 for domestic students. Information about the application process can be found here: https://www.monash.edu/graduate-research/study/apply About the supervisory team: Successful applicants will be supervised by Dr Matthew Page, Professor Joanne McKenzie and Dr Daniel Hamilton. Dr Page and Prof McKenzie co-led the development of the PRISMA 2020 statement for systematic reviews and lead the Methods in Evidence Synthesis Unit at Monash. Dr Hamilton is a postdoctoral fellow working on a NHMRC-funded project to enable more efficient and effective translation of PRISMA reporting guidelines into practice (the PRISMATIC project).