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PRISMA 2020 flow templates

Teaching Case — A Review That Included Nothing

An empty review is a publishable result and its flow diagram is a correct diagram: every one of the 96 reports assessed was excluded, with reasons, and the arithmetic balances exactly. The engine says so out loud rather than staying silent, because a figure ending in `n = 0` reads as an unfinished diagram — and a checker that returns nothing on it would leave the author unsure whether it had run. Reports clean.

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Template previewPRISMA 2020 flow
Hyperbaric oxygen for chronic fatigue — review652 records identified · 3 exclusion reasonsIdentificationScreeningEligibilityIncludedRecords identified from:n = 652Databases: 640 · Registers: 12Records removed before screeningn = 138Duplicates removed: 118Excluded by automation: 20Records screened (title / abstract)n = 514Records excluded by reviewern = 402Reports sought for retrievaln = 112Reports not retrievedn = 16Reports assessed for eligibilityn = 96Reports excluded:n = 96No comparator: n = 44Not chronic fatigue: n = 33Case report: n = 19Studies included in reviewn = 0Every record is accounted for: all 4 stages of the flow balance.INFONo study met the inclusion criteria: all 96 reports assessed for eligibility were excluded. An empty review is a publishable result, and this figure reports one— stated here so it is not mistaken for an unfinished diagram.OKAll 10 stated counts are whole numbers of records.OKIdentification balances: 640 + 12 − 118 − 20 = 514 `title_screened`.OKScreening balances: 514 − 402 = 112 `abstracts_sought`.OKRetrieval balances: 112 − 16 = 96 `fulltext_assessed` (`other_sought` and `other_unavailable` are not stated and read as zero).OKEligibility balances: 96 − 96 = 0 `studies_included`.OKThe funnel descends: all 3 stage-to-stage comparisons hold — no count is larger than the one before it.OKAll 3 exclusion reasons are named and distinct, accounting for 96 reports.

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title "Hyperbaric oxygen for chronic fatigue — review"

db_records 640
register_records 12
duplicates 118
excluded_auto 20

title_screened 514
title_excluded 402

abstracts_sought 112
abstracts_unavailable 16

fulltext_assessed 96
exclude_reason "No comparator" 44
exclude_reason "Not chronic fatigue" 33
exclude_reason "Case report" 19

studies_included 0