Standardised data files for systematic reviews
Ongoing projectSystematic reviews are complex, laborious tasks that produce vast amounts of data. However, the effort required to produce these data are typically lost once a review is completed: some information is reported in the review, but often information is missing or specific details are lacking.
Even in excellent systematic reviews, data are rarely reported in formats and file types that are easily understood and can be reused or repurposed for future projects, like systematic review updates or overlapping analyses. Instead, much of the review work must be repeated.
Imagine the way you backup your mobile phone and transfer your files and settings to a new handset: if systematic reviews were accompanied by a set of standardised file types describing the methods, activities and outputs, reviews could easily be updated, verified and adapted by machines.
We recognise the wasted effort that could be saved here, and we are conducting a project to establish a set of minimum standards, file types and formats that will help to ensure that systematic reviews are as transparent and interoperable as possible (meaning that their data can be easily reused and adapted for other purposes).
You can read more about the project here: https://reviewdata.github.io/
