Methodological Issues in Conducting Overviews of Systematic Reviews

‘Overviews of systematic reviews’ collate, appraise and synthesise evidence from systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses. Overviews have evolved in response to the growing number of SRs. This thesis advances methods research in overviews by making them easier to retrieve, outlining a comprehensive list of methods used in overviews, identifying studies evaluating methods, and providing an assessment of the reporting of methods to determine areas of improvement. A major finding is that overviews contain unique challenges and gaps in methods evaluations exist. Methods without evaluation may be used inappropriately and may impact on the validity and reliability of the overview findings.