The PRISMA aims to enhance the transparency and reporting quality of systematic reviews. PRISMA 2020 is an update version of PRISMA 2009, which was published in BMJ in March, 2021. This article compared the PRISMA 2020 and PRISMA 2009, interpreted PRISMA 2020 with representative examples, aiming to help Chinese scholars better understand and apply this reporting guideline, thus to improve the reporting quality of systematic reviews.
Literature searching serves as the cornerstone of systematic reviews (SRs), yet the quality of its reporting has long been inadequate, severely compromising the transparency and reproducibility of research. As an extension to PRISMA 2020, PRISMA-S (PRISMA for Searching) provides a dedicated 16-item checklist to standardize the reporting of literature searches. This paper aims to provide a systematic interpretation of PRISMA-S for a Chinese-speaking audience. Based on the original publication, it not only elaborates on the rationale and requirements of each checklist item but also further explores the guideline's cross-disciplinary applicability, its inherent limitations as a "reporting guideline" and offers practical recommendations for challenges in local application, such as reporting searches in Chinese databases. The goal is to offer a clear and practical guide for Chinese researchers, journal editors, and peer reviewers, thereby enhancing the reporting quality of the literature search component in SRs and promoting the standardization and internationalization of research in China.