Dr. Taimoor Asghar provides end-to-end support for systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and advanced quantitative research. His experience spans more than ten evidence-synthesis and complex-analysis workflows—from turning a clinical question into a reproducible protocol to producing publication-ready results, interpretation, and discussion.
Complete evidence-synthesis workflow
1. Question, protocol, and eligibility
Refining the research question with PICO, PECO, PICo, or another appropriate framework; defining populations, interventions or exposures, comparators, outcomes, study designs, time points, and decision rules before screening begins.
- Protocol development and methods planning
- Eligibility criteria and outcome hierarchy
- PRISMA-P-aligned documentation
- PROSPERO or OSF preparation where appropriate
2. Search strategy and article retrieval
Designing sensitive, reproducible searches for leading bibliographic databases and discipline-specific sources. The exact combination is selected for the question and may include MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, trial registries, and relevant grey literature.
- Controlled vocabulary and free-text concepts
- Boolean logic, proximity operators, and filters
- Backward and forward citation searching
- Search logs, deduplication, and update searches
3. Screening and study selection
Building transparent title-and-abstract and full-text screening workflows with calibrated decisions, documented exclusion reasons, duplicate review where required, and a reproducible PRISMA flow.
- Screening forms and reviewer guidance
- Conflict resolution and calibration rounds
- Full-text exclusion taxonomy
- PRISMA 2020 flow-diagram inputs
4. Extraction and data engineering
Creating extraction forms, codebooks, and analysis-ready datasets that preserve study-level context while making assumptions and transformations auditable.
- Study characteristics and outcome extraction
- Effect-size calculation and unit harmonisation
- Handling multiple arms, time points, and measures
- Missing-data queries and transparent derivations
5. Risk of bias and evidence quality
Selecting design-appropriate appraisal methods rather than applying a single checklist to every study. Tools may include RoB 2, ROBINS-I, QUADAS-2, JBI instruments, or other justified frameworks.
- Domain-level judgements with supporting quotations
- Reviewer calibration and consensus records
- Risk-of-bias visualisations
- GRADE certainty and Summary of Findings inputs
6. Statistical meta-analysis
Choosing the effect measure and model from the clinical and statistical structure of the evidence—not from a default template—and documenting every analytical decision.
- Fixed-effect and random-effects models
- Heterogeneity, prediction intervals, and tau-squared
- Subgroup analysis and meta-regression
- Influence, leave-one-out, outlier, and sensitivity analyses
- Small-study effects and publication-bias assessment
7. Network meta-analysis
Advanced comparative-effectiveness synthesis when several interventions form a connected and clinically defensible evidence network.
- Network geometry and connectedness
- Transitivity and consistency assessment
- Direct, indirect, and network estimates
- League tables, ranking measures, and network plots
- Local and global inconsistency diagnostics
8. Advanced quantitative methods
Complex analysis is added only when it answers a pre-specified research question and the available data support it.
- Exploratory factor analysis, factorability checks, parallel analysis, extraction, and rotation
- Diagnostic-accuracy, prevalence, proportion, and dose-response synthesis
- Multivariable modelling and robust sensitivity checks
- Reliability, construct exploration, and scale-related analysis
9. Interpretation and discussion writing
Turning statistical output into a careful clinical and methodological narrative that distinguishes what the evidence shows from what remains uncertain.
- Manuscript-ready Methods and Results
- Discussion structure and comparison with prior evidence
- Strengths, limitations, certainty, and applicability
- Clinical, research, and policy implications
- PRISMA-aligned reporting and reviewer-response support
Typical deliverables
- Protocol, eligibility framework, and analysis plan
- Database-specific search strategies and complete search log
- Deduplicated library, screening decisions, and PRISMA counts
- Extraction form, data dictionary, and analysis-ready dataset
- Risk-of-bias tables and figures
- Forest, funnel, influence, subgroup, meta-regression, and network visualisations as appropriate
- Reproducible analytical code or a fully documented analysis trail
- Publication-ready tables, Methods, Results, and Discussion support
Working principles
Every project begins with scope, authorship expectations, available data, deadlines, and deliverables agreed in advance. Analytical choices, exclusions, transformations, and deviations are documented. No method is added simply to make an analysis look more complex, and no outcome or publication result can be guaranteed.
Request sample work or discuss a review
For a collaboration or sample-work request, include the clinical question, current protocol or search strategy, stage of the review, approximate number of records or studies, available dataset, intended journal or deadline, and the specific support required. Email moorasghar@gmail.com.