Page 102 - JCTR-11-2

Journal of Clinical and
Translational Research Review of research landscapes and quality

studies, has only eight items and is simpler to apply. December 2019, will be identified from various databases:
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However, the items may require customization to the review PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and PsycINFO
question of interest. The Downs and Black instrument (Figure 1); including all published peer-reviewed health and
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has been modified for use in a methodological systematic biomedical research papers from each country (Malaysia
review. The reviewers found that some of the 29 items or Indonesia), or authored by citizens of each country
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were difficult to apply to case–control studies. In addition, (Malaysian or Indonesian) with an affiliation to an institution
the instrument requires considerable epidemiological in either country. Additional literature will be extracted
expertise and is time-consuming and difficult to operate. 21-24 from the MyMedR (Malaysian Medical Repository) (http://
The median observed inter-rater agreement for the RTI-IB mymedr.afpm.org.my/) database, as it specifically compiles
was 75% (25 percentile [p25] = 61%; p75 = 89%). The published papers in health and biomedical research
th
median first-order agreement coefficient statistic was 0.64 conducted in Malaysia or by authors who have a Malaysian
(p25 = 0.51; p75 = 0.86). Although the RTI-IB facilitates a affiliation. MyMedR also draws from MyJurnal, an online
more complete quality assessment than the NOS, it is also system used by the Malaysia Citation Centre of the Ministry
more burdensome. In addition, there are different meanings of Higher Education Malaysia to collect and index all
for epidemiological terminologies across different Malaysian journals. Grey literature will not be included,
countries. For example, the term “selection bias” describes and there will be no exclusion based on language. Search
what others may call “applicability” or “generalizability.” results will be compiled into Endnote reference management
Consequently, applying these tools presents challenges, software, where duplicates will be removed. If necessary,
as they require significant epidemiological expertise, are authors and institutions will be contacted. A medical
time-consuming to use, and often yield inconsistent results librarian and a scientific officer at the Faculty of Medicine
due to low inter-rater reliability. Thus, comprehensive and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia will assist
manuals are required to accompany these tools to provide with these tasks. The screening process for publications from
instructions for standardized interpretation by different both countries will be completed by two separate teams, each
users. However, this may pose a real challenge to users, as based in Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively.
few tools have such comprehensive manuals. To the best of
our knowledge, no existing tool serves as an all-rounded 2.2. Study selection and data extraction
tool for assessing all types of study designs, nor is there The authors of the present article (i.e., physicians and
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a recommended tool suitable for quickly screening the medical professionals) will serve as reviewers of the
quality of published research. identified articles and will be trained on the review

In light of this, our research group has assimilated quality protocol before commencing the paper screening. The
indicators used in existing tools, drawing from a series of articles will be screened by title and abstract. The full
user guides to the medical literature by the Evidence-Based text of eligible articles will be retrieved and distributed to
Medicine Working Group, 25,26 systematic reviews, 27,28 and pairs of reviewers for screening; independently extracted
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principles of clinical epidemiology, and consequently, information will be input into a standard data extraction
developed a comprehensive assessment tool based on the template (Tables A1-4). This template has been pilot-tested
findings. In future work, the group will systematically assess on 10 articles among all the reviewers for clarity, and
the characteristics in research publications by researchers in modification of the template was done accordingly. The
Malaysia and Indonesia and subsequently identify quality final piloted template is available in Tables A1 and 3. Any
indicators of these research publications. discrepancy during article selection and data extraction will
be solved by consensus between three or more reviewers.
2. Research design To ensure the inclusion of only high-quality data, B.H.C.
will reassess 10 – 20% of the included articles.
The overall research design consists of two analytical
phases: In the event of duplicate publications or multiple reports
(i) Phase 1 (research landscapes): Descriptive reporting of a research study, we will use the most complete data
of the research demographics and characteristics in set aggregated across all known publications. Duplicate
each country to date. publications are defined as two or more published articles
(ii) Phase 2 (research quality): Quality assessment of that report on the same research question.
research based on the published reports in journals.
2.3. Research landscapes
2.1. Inclusion criteria and search strategy Phase 1 of the project will describe the following
Before data analysis, all clinical and biomedical research characteristics of the reported research (Table A1 for more
conducted in Malaysia or Indonesia, from January 1962 to details):

Volume 11 Issue 2 (2025) 96 doi: 10.36922/jctr.24.00071