A Review of Risk of Bias Assessments Within Literature Reviews and Meta‐Analyses Published in Behavior‐Analytic Journals

Abstract

ABSTRACT Systematic literature reviews and meta‐analyses that follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines are commonly published within behavior‐analytic literature. One PRISMA guideline involves conducting a risk of bias assessment. Given the prevalence of PRISMA reviews in behavior‐analytic literature, evaluating how often this type of assessment is included within reviews may be useful. The purpose of this review was to identify the inclusion of risk of bias assessments as outlined by PRISMA in systematic literature reviews and meta‐analyses published within behavior‐analytic journals. Articles published between March 29, 2021, and March 31, 2026, were evaluated to assess the inclusion of this assessment since the most recent PRISMA guidelines published on March 29, 2021. For articles that included a risk of bias assessment, the quality of the assessment was also evaluated. Eighty articles met inclusion for this review and six included a risk of bias assessment. Across those six articles, quality scores ranged from 6/10 (partially aligned) to 8/10 (aligned), with an average score of 7 (aligned). These findings may help ensure that systematic reviews using PRISMA guidelines are conducted with consistency and quality. Future directions and implications of these results are discussed.