The ability to generalize from the findings of previous research regarding staff views towards smoking bans is limited by a number of methodological features and differences in methodologies between studies.
However, research on abstracts in human biomedicine has shown that abstracts often do not report key methodological features and results.
For each study we assessed the clinical and methodological features, and the completeness and transparency of reporting.
We have outlined the method's theoretical foundations, its underlying assumptions, its key methodological features, and some reflections on potential uses and impact of the method.
As part of this review we have created a publicly accessible online database of these trials including key methodological features and links to the original reports [ 17].
The primary aim of this report is to provide an up-to-date and systematic review of the methodological features and substantive results of epidemiological surveys of the prevalence of pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), including autistic disorder (AD) worldwide.
For this report the included reviews were summarised in a tabular format giving basic information on the conditions, interventions, comparisons, number of studies reviewed, methodological features, results, and conclusions drawn by the reviewers (if possible in the original wording).
Finally, by synthesizing the methodological features of, and identifying gaps in, the body of pediatric critical care research, it will allow researchers and funding agencies to prioritize trial designs to fill the gaps we identify in the conditions studied, trial methods, interventions, and the outcomes assessed.
Independent raters coded participant characteristics, design and methodological features, intervention content, and calculated weighted mean effect sizes using fixed and random-effects models.
*Including epidemiology, health economics, health management etc. **Including public health, health economics, health policy and management, economics etc. Table 2 reports economic and methodological features of the selected studies and Table 3 shows the extent to which these studies meet the recommendations for good reporting of economic evaluations.
Methodological features were extracted and combined by arborescence to generate a broad spectrum of potential designs, called vignettes, yielding 357 vignettes.
