Mapping the journey from PROSPERO registration to publication: A web-scraping approach into animal systematic review protocols

Conducting a rigorous animal systematic review requires a priori registration of a study protocol, commonly published on PROSPERO, the international prospective register of systematic reviews. However, it remains unclear how many of these registered studies culminate in publication, potentially inducing bias to the scientific literature body. To assess the proportion of systematic review protocols which culminate in publication, including the time lag between protocol and study publication as well as demographic and quality parameters of systematic review protocols. All available animal systematic reviews protocols were manually curated from PROSPERO. Start and completion date as well as topical and demographic data were extracted, complemented by a web-scraping approach. Assessment of publication date to a journal was achieved through a systematic literature search. Out of 1612 protocols, 738 resulted in a published systematic review (46%). Authors underestimated the time it takes to publish (anticipated time — median: 6.4 months [range: 0.9 – 48.6], actual time — median: 10.6 months [range: 1.4 – 45.1 months]). The 5 most prolific countries on published protocols were Brazil (173, 10.7%), China (121, 7.5%), the Netherlands (59, 3.7%), the USA (51, 3.2%), and the UK (48, 3.0%). 96 protocols were registered by 2 or more countries, of which 49 were published (51.0%). The majority of the systematic review protocols do not result in publication. Our findings provide guidance to potential authors of animal systematic reviews, which are acknowledged tools to foster 3R principles, about expected time frames.

Project Lead

Benjamin Ineichen

CRS Collaborators

Simona Doneva,  Eva Furrer

External Collaborators

Julia Bugajska

Publications