Decisions in healthcare should be based on information obtained according to the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). An increasing number of systematic reviews are published which summarize the results of prevalence studies. Interpretation of the results of these reviews should be accompanied by an appraisal of the methodological quality of the included data and studies. The critical a...

PURPOSE To evaluate methodological and reporting quality of diagnostic accuracy studies of perimetry in glaucoma and to determine whether there had been any improvement since the publication of the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) guidelines. METHODS A systematic review of English language articles published between 1993 and 2013 reporting the diagnostic accuracy of peri...

Cultural attributes of employees affect organizations in several different ways through their impact on organizational goals and decision-making processes. Social media create ample opportunities for organizations to improve competitiveness and efficiency of marketing and communications. We empirically investigate the impact of employee cultural dimensions on social media usage at work and at h...

BACKGROUND Chinese herbal medicine has been used to treat hypertension in China and East Asia since centuries. In this study, we conduct an overview of systematic reviews of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of primary hypertension to 1) summarize the conclusions of these reviews, 2) evaluate the methodological quality of these reviews, and 3) rate the confidence in the effect on each ou...

In this address, I revisit the micro–macro problem in criminology, arguing for an “analytical criminology” that takes an integrated approach to the micro– macro problem. I begin by contrasting an integrated methodological-individualist approach with traditional holist and individualist approaches. An integrated approach considers the concept of emergence and tackles the difficult problem of spe...

The methodological quality of primary studies is an important issue when performing meta-analyses or systematic reviews. Nevertheless, there are no clear criteria for how methodological quality should be analyzed. Controversies emerge when considering the various theoretical and empirical definitions, especially in relation to three interrelated problems: the lack of representativeness, utility...

BACKGROUND There is a growing body of evidence on the risks and benefits of influenza vaccination in various target groups. Systematic reviews are of particular importance for policy decisions. However, their methodological quality can vary considerably. OBJECTIVES To investigate the methodological quality of systematic reviews on influenza vaccination (efficacy, effectiveness, safety) and to...

Arguments derived from the theory of science have been present in strategic management discourse since at least the beginning of the 1970s. The field’s topjournal, the Strategic Management Journal, has printed several theory of sciencebased papers. Most positions in the theory of science (falsificationism, instrumentalism, realism, constructivism, etc.) have been present in the methodological d...

In this short essay we respond to Jepperson and Meyer’s (2011) critique of “action theories” and methodological individualism in sociology. We highlight fundamental problems with their argument, notably their misconception of methodological individualism(s) and the belief that this explanatory principle ignores—and is somehow invalidated by—the complex, “emergent” and multi-level nature of soci...

Most insights of environmental economics are in line with the standard neoclassical economic model of rational behaviour, formulated in terms of maximization of utility in general, or of profits in particular. The standard theory of environmental policy is a case in point. However, the maximization hypothesis and its methodological foundation have been criticized on many grounds related to a la...