History and publication trends in the diffusion and early uptake of indirect comparison meta-analytic methods to study drugs: animated coauthorship networks over time.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To characterise the early diffusion of indirect comparison meta-analytic methods to study drugs.

Design

Systematic literature synthesis.

Data sources

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus and Web of Science.

Study selection

English language papers that used indirect comparison meta-analytic methods to study the efficacy or safety of three or more interventions, where at least one was a drug.

Data extraction

The number of publications and authors was plotted by year and type: methodological contribution, review or empirical application. Author and methodological details were summarised for empirical applications, and animated coauthorship networks were created to visualise contributors by country and affiliation type (

SUBMITTER: Ban JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6045745 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature