Compliance Ratio between the Abstracts of Iranian Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Indexed in Web of Sciences and PRISMA Statement

Systematic review is an approach with precise identification of all the relevant studies leading to more objective and scientific conclusions. Unless the structure of the studies comply with internationally accepted standards، they cannot effectively be responsive to objectives of the studies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the compliance ration of Iranian Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis abstracts indexed in WOS and PRISMA statement This study is an analytical survey. The sample included 204 Iranian systematic reviews and meta-analysis abstracts indexed in WOS up to the end of 2012. In this study the structure of the abstracts were evaluated using the PRISMA statement. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to calculate the correlation between the obtained results with cited articles، the number of authors and the publication year. The mean PRISMA score of article’s abstract was 6. 24± 1. 68. The objective section with 99%، compliance rate، had the highest compliance rate and the Registration with 2%، had the lowest compliance rate among other PRISMA items. The means for citations and the number of authors were 4 and 5. 3، respectively. There is statistically significant positive correlation between the PRISMA score and the mean of received citations (P=0. 010، r=0. 181)، as well as the number of authors (P=0. 013، r=0. 175). According to the findings the ratio of compliance between abstracts and PRISMA is not desirable. Therefore، authors should be trained for better reporting of results. In addition، the editors of magazines should include the guidelines of accurate reporting of these types of articles in the article writing guidelines.