ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]
Science is justly admired as a cumulative process (“standing on the shoulders of giants”), yet scientific knowledge is typically built on a patchwork of research contributions without much coordination. This lack of efficiency has specifically been addressed in clinical research by recommendations a...
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F1000 Research Ltd
2025-06-01
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| Online Access: | https://f1000research.com/articles/11-549/v2 |
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| author | Judith ter Schure Peter Grünwald |
| author_facet | Judith ter Schure Peter Grünwald |
| author_sort | Judith ter Schure |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Science is justly admired as a cumulative process (“standing on the shoulders of giants”), yet scientific knowledge is typically built on a patchwork of research contributions without much coordination. This lack of efficiency has specifically been addressed in clinical research by recommendations against avoidable research waste and for living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analysis. We propose to further those recommendations with ALL-IN meta-analysis: Anytime Live and Leading INterim meta-analysis. ALL-IN provides meta-analysis based on e-values and anytime-valid confidence intervals that can be updated at any time—reanalyzing after each new observation while retaining type-I error and coverage guarantees, live—no need to prespecify the looks, and leading—in the decisions on whether individual studies should be initiated, stopped or expanded, the meta-analysis can be the leading source of information without losing validity to accumulation bias. The analysis design requires no information about the trial sample sizes or the number of trials eventually included. So ALL-IN meta-analysis can be applied retrospectively as well as prospectively, to evaluate the evidence once or sequentially. Because the intention of the analysis does not change the validity of the results, the results of the analysis can change the intentions (‘optional stopping’ and ‘optional continuation’ based on the results so far). On the one hand: any analysis can be turned into a living one, or even become prospective and real-time by updating with new trial data and including interim data from trials that are still ongoing — without any changes in the cut-offs for testing or the method for interval estimation. On the other hand: no stopping rule needs to be enforced for the analysis to remain valid, so participating in a prospective meta-analysis does not require outside control over data collection. Hence ALL-IN meta-analysis breathes life into living systematic reviews, and offers better and simpler statistics, efficiency, collaboration and communication. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cd85a7ad1ac24b3b924b27de340b2b42 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2046-1402 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | F1000 Research Ltd |
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| series | F1000Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-cd85a7ad1ac24b3b924b27de340b2b422025-08-20T03:31:14ZengF1000 Research LtdF1000Research2046-14022025-06-011110.12688/f1000research.74223.2178216ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]Judith ter Schure0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2147-5510Peter Grünwald1Epidemiology & Data Science, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, North Holland, The NetherlandsMachine Learning, CWI, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsScience is justly admired as a cumulative process (“standing on the shoulders of giants”), yet scientific knowledge is typically built on a patchwork of research contributions without much coordination. This lack of efficiency has specifically been addressed in clinical research by recommendations against avoidable research waste and for living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analysis. We propose to further those recommendations with ALL-IN meta-analysis: Anytime Live and Leading INterim meta-analysis. ALL-IN provides meta-analysis based on e-values and anytime-valid confidence intervals that can be updated at any time—reanalyzing after each new observation while retaining type-I error and coverage guarantees, live—no need to prespecify the looks, and leading—in the decisions on whether individual studies should be initiated, stopped or expanded, the meta-analysis can be the leading source of information without losing validity to accumulation bias. The analysis design requires no information about the trial sample sizes or the number of trials eventually included. So ALL-IN meta-analysis can be applied retrospectively as well as prospectively, to evaluate the evidence once or sequentially. Because the intention of the analysis does not change the validity of the results, the results of the analysis can change the intentions (‘optional stopping’ and ‘optional continuation’ based on the results so far). On the one hand: any analysis can be turned into a living one, or even become prospective and real-time by updating with new trial data and including interim data from trials that are still ongoing — without any changes in the cut-offs for testing or the method for interval estimation. On the other hand: no stopping rule needs to be enforced for the analysis to remain valid, so participating in a prospective meta-analysis does not require outside control over data collection. Hence ALL-IN meta-analysis breathes life into living systematic reviews, and offers better and simpler statistics, efficiency, collaboration and communication.https://f1000research.com/articles/11-549/v2Anytime Live Leading Interim Meta-analysis Efficiencyeng |
| spellingShingle | Judith ter Schure Peter Grünwald ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] F1000Research Anytime Live Leading Interim Meta-analysis Efficiency eng |
| title | ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_full | ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_fullStr | ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_full_unstemmed | ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_short | ALL-IN meta-analysis: breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta-analyses [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_sort | all in meta analysis breathing life into living systematic reviews and prospective meta analyses version 2 peer review 1 approved 2 approved with reservations |
| topic | Anytime Live Leading Interim Meta-analysis Efficiency eng |
| url | https://f1000research.com/articles/11-549/v2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT judithterschure allinmetaanalysisbreathinglifeintolivingsystematicreviewsandprospectivemetaanalysesversion2peerreview1approved2approvedwithreservations AT petergrunwald allinmetaanalysisbreathinglifeintolivingsystematicreviewsandprospectivemetaanalysesversion2peerreview1approved2approvedwithreservations |