Grading the evidence of systematic reviews on animal studies will contribute to the improvement in the feasibility of transforming the results of animal studies into clinical trials or clinical practice. High quality evidence from animal studies is more likely to be successfully applied into clinical practice (i.e. more confident). Therefore, the present study will introduce the principles, methods and challenges of the application of GRADE in systematic reviews on animal studies.
ObjectivesTo introduce the formulating methods and implementing steps of search strategy of systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analysis (MAs) of animal experiments, so as to provide a reference for domestic related researchers, and promote the development and implementation of high quality SRs/MAs of animal experiments in China. MethodsPubMed, EMbase and CNKI databases were searched online to retrieve studies on the search strategy of SRs/ MAs of animal experiments from inception to October 2017. A descriptive analysis was then conducted using the evidence-based medicine theory and method.ResultsA total of 5 studies were included. The 5 basic steps on how to design and carry out comprehensive search strategies to identify potentially relevant animal experiments on a specific research question were as follow: 1) Formulate research question; 2) Identify appropriate databases and sources of studies; 3) Transform research question into search strategy; 4) Collect search results and remove duplicates; 5) Identify potentially relevant papers. The report of search strategy needs to state its search method and search results clearly.ConclusionThese 5 steps can provide an effective method, which will assist researchers in performing a comprehensive literature search.