“One more time”: why replicating some syntheses of evidence relevant to COVID-19 makes sense

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

Volume 125, September 2020, Pages 179-182

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Given the urgent need for credible answers to high-priority questions about the health and social impacts of COVID-19, many systematic reviewers seek to contribute their skills and expertise.
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Rather than embarking on unnecessary, duplicate reviews, we encourage the evidence synthesis community to prioritise purposeful replication of systematic reviews of evidence relevant to COVID-19.
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We explain why replication of systematic reviews is important, how to carry out a replication, and when to consider replication of reviews.

: Conflict of interest: M.J.P. is an editorial board member, and P.T. is the co-editor in chief for the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, but neither was involved in the peer review process or decision to publish.

: Funding: There was no direct funding for this article. M.J.P. is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE200101618). The meeting to develop guidance on when and when not to replicate systematic reviews was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Operating Grant (REF # PJT-148870). The funders had no role in decision to publish or preparation of the article.