Figure 3 illustrates the different methodological components and the longitudinal design.
As a result, reporting guidelines were developed (Moher et al., 2001; Schulz et al., 2010) to promote the reporting of key methodological components and results that enable study bias to be assessed and to support evidence synthesis.
In the Portfolio Database review, only pilot studies cited an intention to estimate sample size calculations for future studies and the majority of pilot studies were full studies run with smaller sample sizes to test out a number of methodological components and clinical outcomes simultaneously.
22 The association between methodological components and the overestimated treatment effects will be determined in this meta-epidemiological study, which will enable us to provide guidance on how to interpret OA trials in systematic reviews based on empirical evidence from Cochrane reviews.
The electronic search strategies used no language restrictions and combined the methodological component of the search strategy of Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group EPOCC) with selected MeSH and free text terms relating to educational games (additional file 1).
As indicated by the above characterization of the mid-twentieth-century American movement, naturalism can be separated into an ontological and a methodological component.
By contrast, the methodological component is concerned with ways of investigating reality, and claims some kind of general authority for the scientific method.
As a consequence, this study has a second, methodological component, in which we identify some insufficiencies of existing mapping software and explore the performance of alternative map construction strategies in order to highlight the need for software improvements in this area.
We developed search strategies for electronic databases using the methodological component of the EPOC search strategy combined with selected Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms and free-text terms.
The absence of blinding of allocated intervention was the most frequent methodological component introducing a high risk of bias.
