Posters · Glossary
What is a PRISMA flow diagram?
A PRISMA flow diagram tracks records through a systematic review, from the number identified in each database, through duplicate removal and title screening, to full text assessment and the studies finally included. Exclusions are shown at each stage with their reasons, and the counts have to reconcile from top to bottom.
It is the same idea as a trial flow diagram, applied to papers instead of people, and it is read the same way: by checking whether the subtractions work.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
2 min read · Published
What makes it different from CONSORT
CONSORT follows people through one trial; PRISMA follows records through a search. The shape is similar and so is the discipline, but the reasons matter at a different stage. In a trial the interesting losses happen at follow up; in a review they happen at full text assessment, where every exclusion needs a stated reason because that is where a reader judges whether your criteria were applied consistently.
Fitting it on a poster
A poster flow block usually gives you six nodes and one aside. Map the main path to identified, screened, assessed, included and analysed, and fold duplicates and screening exclusions into the aside with their counts. Register the protocol and say where the full diagram lives, because the compressed version on a board is a summary rather than a substitute.
Where reviewers look first
At whether the included count matches the number of studies you describe later, and at whether the exclusion reasons at full text add up to the number excluded. Those two checks take fifteen seconds and catch most sloppy reviews, which is exactly why they are worth doing to your own board before somebody else does them.
Questions people ask
Do I need to list every database separately?
Yes, with its own count and ideally its search date. A single combined number hides whether your search was broad enough, and a reader cannot reproduce it. Grey literature and register searches are listed alongside rather than merged in.
Where do duplicates go?
Removed before screening, as their own step. Leaving them out is the most common reason a diagram fails to reconcile: the identified total no longer matches the screened total and a reader cannot tell whether that is duplicates or an error.
Do exclusions need reasons at every stage?
At full text assessment, yes. At title and abstract screening a bulk count is normally accepted, because recording a reason for several thousand obviously irrelevant titles is not useful. The reasons at full text are the ones that show your criteria were applied consistently.
What if a full text could not be obtained?
Say so, with a count. Reports sought but not retrieved is a real category and hiding it inflates the apparent completeness of your search. It is also the kind of gap a reader will assume the worst about if it is unexplained.
Can I use PRISMA for a scoping review?
There is a specific extension for scoping reviews, and using it signals the right expectations to a reader. Applying the main statement to a scoping review implies a systematic search and synthesis you may not have done, which is the sort of mismatch reviewers notice.
Make one with posters
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Create a poster with OneCraftRelated questions
- What is a CONSORT flow diagram?A CONSORT flow diagram tracks every participant from screening to analysis. What each box holds, why the arithmetic must reconcile, and how it fits a poster.
- What is a research poster?A research poster is one board that carries a whole study: abstract, methods, results and conclusion, read standing up in about three minutes.
- What DPI does a poster need?A poster is read from a metre away, so about 100 pixels per inch at full size is enough. Why 300 DPI is a photographic habit that does not apply.
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