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PRISMA 2020 flow templates

Teaching Case — A Stage With Nothing to Balance Against

The half of the discipline that is easier to get wrong. This review never states how many reports it sought for retrieval, so two stages cannot be balanced at all — and the engine reports them as GAPS naming the missing keyword, rather than assuming a number and reporting clean. "430 = 430 if we assume nothing was lost in retrieval" is exactly the sentence a reporting standard exists to prevent. The box is drawn as "n = not stated", never blank and never zero.

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Template previewPRISMA 2020 flow
Workplace mindfulness programmes — review1,300 records identified · 2 exclusion reasonsIdentificationScreeningEligibilityIncludedRecords identified from:n = 1,300Databases: 1,240 · Registers: 60Records removed before screeningn = 305Duplicates removed: 265Excluded by automation: 40Records screened (title / abstract)n = 995Records excluded by reviewern = 780not balanced — a term is missingReports sought for retrievaln = not statedReports not retrievedn = 11not balanced — a term is missingReports assessed for eligibilityn = 204Reports excluded:n = 117No control condition: n = 72Not workplace-delivered: n = 45Studies included in reviewn = 87This flow is UNCHECKED in 2 places, not clean — 2 of 4 stages could be balanced.GAPThe screening stage cannot be balanced: the document states no count for what remained — state `abstracts_sought`. This stage is UNCHECKED, notclean.GAPThe retrieval stage cannot be balanced: the document states no count for what entered it — state `abstracts_sought` and `other_sought`. This stage isUNCHECKED, not clean.OKAll 9 stated counts are whole numbers of records.OKIdentification balances: 1,240 + 60 − 265 − 40 = 995 `title_screened`.OKEligibility balances: 204 − 117 = 87 `studies_included`.OKThe funnel descends: all 2 stage-to-stage comparisons hold — no count is larger than the one before it.OKAll 2 exclusion reasons are named and distinct, accounting for 117 reports.

Make it your own.

title "Workplace mindfulness programmes — review"

db_records 1240
register_records 60
duplicates 265
excluded_auto 40

title_screened 995
title_excluded 780

# "abstracts_sought" is never stated, so the screening stage has no
# remainder and the retrieval stage has no inflow.
abstracts_unavailable 11

fulltext_assessed 204
exclude_reason "No control condition" 72
exclude_reason "Not workplace-delivered" 45

studies_included 87