Most papers written in Chinese were included in the meta-analysis. There are about 40 papers included in the systematic review, and about 20 meta-analyzed papers. Since it was cumbersome to mention the paper in the text, I did not mention it, and accordingly, I received a reply that it was better to remove them from the reference. Could you tell me how to describe the reference as a supplementary material?
1 Answer
I am not sure what you mean by the "primary study". I think maybe you mean all the papers that were analyzed.
I've reviewed a lot of meta-analyses. Generally, all the papers are listed in a table and also in the forest plots. How exactly this is done varies. I prefer that the plots include minimal text, and that they refer to the tables. The table usually includes the authors, the year, the sample size, and other information that is relevant to the particular meta-analysis.
You can't just not mention them in the text at all, but you can include them only in tabular form.
Where exactly the table and plots go in the text will also vary by journal. Some have it at the end, some in the results section.
