Table 2 Inclusion/exclusion criteria: title/abstract level and full text level

Publication type:

Published journal articles

Language:

Title/abstract level: only articles with at least an abstract in English, German, or French Full text level: only articles in English, German, or French

Content:

The article must:

Inclusion

(a) Be explicitly concerned with normative ethical considerations of medical topics. This meant the article had to, e.g.:

i. Pose an ethical question

ii. Determine ethical problems/challenges

iii. Address ethical decision making or the use of ethical frameworks for decision making

iv. Explore ethical views or reasons for/against a decision, etc.

v. Look for/produce empirical data for ethical decision making or ethical evaluation

vi. Examine ethical regulations or recommendations, etc.

It was not sufficient for the abstract to mention, e.g., that the results of the study indicate that there are ethical issues

(b) Have an identifiable description of at least some methodological elements describing a reproducible literature search (e.g., search terms, databases used, or inclusion/exclusion criteria), irrespective of its own possible labeling as “narrative” or “systematic” review. Only mentioning that “a review was done” was not enough

(c) Only on full text level: be a review of normative literature or a review of mixed literature.

Exclusion

(a) Not be a review of study protocols or of ethics consultation documentation

(b) Not be solely concerned with legal analysis

(c) Not solely address “meta”topics of (systematic) reviews, e.g., methodology of literature reviews in bioethics or for ethical aspects in HTA [17, 19–21], methodologies of empirical ethics research [11] or discussions about (research) ethics in (medical) systematic reviews [22]

(d) Only on full text level: not be (solely) a review of empirical literature

Quality:

No quality appraisal criteria used (all reviews included that meet the criteria above)