PRISMA endorsement — PRISMA statement

Impact and endorsement of PRISMA

Impact of PRISMA

PRISMA has been heavily cited. According to a Nature analysis, the original PRISMA statement is one of the top 10 most-cited papers of all time, and the PRISMA 2020 statement is one of the top 25 most-cited papers of the 21st century.

PRISMA endorsement

PRISMA has received endorsement globally by many prominent editorial organisations and journals (see list of endorsers). PRISMA endorsement by journals is typically exemplified by a statement in the journal's Instructions to Authors indicating the journal’s support of PRISMA, in the form of a recommendation to authors to adhere to the PRISMA checklist and to use a PRISMA flow diagram in their systematic review manuscripts.

How to endorse PRISMA

Step 1.

Include mention of the PRISMA statement and reference the PRISMA website in your journal's instructions to authors for reporting of systematic reviews, or in the organization’s resource section.

Our suggested text to include in journal’s instructions to authors is as follows:

"[journal name] requires a completed PRISMA checklist and flow diagram as a condition of submission when reporting findings from a systematic review or meta-analysis. Templates for these can be found here or on the PRISMA website, which also describes several PRISMA checklist extensions for different designs and types of data beyond conventional systematic reviews evaluating interventions. At minimum, your article should report the content addressed by each item of the checklist. Meeting these basic reporting requirements will greatly improve the value of your review and may enhance its chances for eventual publication."

Step 2

Write an editorial in the journal to this effect along with the journal's policy on helping to improve the quality of reporting systematic reviews (see example here).