Best Practice Guidelines for Abstract Screening Large-Evidence Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Abstract screening is one important aspect of conducting a high-quality and comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. Abstract screening allows the review team to conduct the tedious but vital first step to synthesize the extant literature: winnowing down the overwhelming amalgamation of citations discovered through research databases to the citations that should be "full-text" screened and eventually included in the review. Although it is a critical process, few guidelines have been put forth since the publications of seminal systematic review textbooks. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to provide a practical set of best practice guidelines to help future review teams and managers. Each of the 10 proposed guidelines is explained using real-world examples or illustrations from applications. We also delineate recent experiences where a team of abstract screeners double-screened 14,923 abstracts in 89 days.