- A surveillance protocol and update triggers.
- Cycle, extraction and version-change logs.
- A stopping and responsibility-continuity policy.
When should a review be living?
A living review is useful for an important question where new evidence may change a conclusion or decision and a team can maintain surveillance. Adding a paper years later alone does not establish a documented living process.
PRISMA-LSR 2024 supplements PRISMA 2020 for reporting living reviews. It primarily addresses health-intervention reviews; explain applicability elsewhere. It does not replace search design or bias assessment.
Surveillance and publication triggers
Specify sources, queries, cutoff dates, surveillance intervals, screening, extraction and method-change controls. Separate running a search from publishing an update: a search can find no eligible new evidence.
Hypothetical plan: monthly surveillance, with quarterly publication assessment or a study that materially changes the estimate. These intervals are illustrative; justify them from evidence pace, decision importance and team capacity.
Decision log and quality controls
For each cycle record dates, records, duplicates, screening decisions, exclusions and consequence for conclusions. Stable study identifiers help avoid double-counting multiple reports.
Version changed queries or AI tools and assess their impact. Verify extraction, bias and protocol compatibility before adding evidence to a meta-analysis.
Explain what changed
An update should identify search dates, new studies, method changes, analysis and certainty. Link the previous version and give a change log so readers can see why conclusions changed or stayed stable.
Do not claim currency without cutoff dates and monitoring intervals. State whether the project is active, paused or ended.
Stopping and continuity
Define stopping conditions prospectively: reduced importance, stable evidence, insufficient resources or replacement by another maintained review. Publish reasons, dates, last status and responsibility.
Graduation can interrupt a student project. Agree continuity and time resources before promising a living review; the label does not substitute for a sustainable plan.
Completed teaching worksheet
This is a hypothetical teaching case, not observed data, an actual review or a publication acceptance. Numbers illustrate decisions.
| Decision or record | Teaching example | Your project action |
|---|---|---|
| Question | An intervention with growing evidence | Justify the living approach. |
| Monitoring | Monthly in the hypothetical plan | Record source, query and owner. |
| Empty cycle | Search done, zero eligible studies | Log zero findings too. |
| Trigger | New evidence with material impact | Predefine publication rules. |
| Stopping | Changed relevance or resources | Publish reason and final maintained version. |
Deliverables and completion checks
- A surveillance protocol and update triggers.
- Cycle, extraction and version-change logs.
- A stopping and responsibility-continuity policy.
Version and scope references: PRISMA — Living systematic reviews extension (2024) · PRISMA 2020 — Statement and checklists
Sources and further reading
Official sources for verification and further reading
- PRISMA — Living systematic reviews extension (2024) Source verification: 2026-10-06
- PRISMA 2020 — Statement and checklists
- EQUATOR Network — Reporting guidelines