Characteristics of all participants that fully completed the survey
| Aspects | Number of respondents (%) |
| Sex | |
| Male | 459 (60.2) |
| Female | 299 (39.2) |
| Diverse | 4 (0.5) |
| Country | |
| Germany | 383 (50.3) |
| Japan | 161 (21.1) |
| Spain | 53 (7.0) |
| USA | 41 (5.4) |
| United Kingdom | 39 (5.1) |
| Canada | 16 (2.1) |
| Italy | 14 (1.8) |
| France | 13 (1.7) |
| Austria | 13 (1.7) |
| Australia | 12 (1.6) |
| Others | 17 (2.2) |
| Specialty | |
| Psychiatry | 177 (23.2) |
| Internal medicine (including subspecialities) | 82 (10.8) |
| General medicine/family medicine | 56 (7.3) |
| Others | 447 (58.7) |
| Professional status | |
| Student | 75 (9.8) |
| Resident | 116 (15.2) |
| Attending/staff physician | 196 (25.7) |
| Consultant | 132 (17.3) |
| Chief physician | 40 (5.2) |
| Dentist | 44 (5.8) |
| Psychologist | 44 (5.8) |
| Other (eg, pharmacist, nurse, midwife, public health scientist, physical therapist etc.) | 115 (15.1) |
| Graduation from university | |
| Not graduated yet | 70 (9.2) |
| Graduated 2010 or later | 287 (37.7) |
| Graduated between 2000 and 2009 | 225 (29.5) |
| Graduated between 1990 and 1999 | 106 (13.9) |
| Graduated 1989 or earlier | 74 (9.7) |
| Experience/knowledge in health research methodology | |
| No official prior knowledge | 444 (58.3) |
| Knowledge based on one or more formal courses in health research methodology | 197 (25.9) |
| Knowledge based on a masters or PhD degree in health practice | 121 (15.9) |
| Experience in conducting systematic reviews | |
| Has conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis himself | 124 (16.3) |
| Has not conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis himself | 638 (83.7) |
‘Others’ in ‘specialty’ includes accident and emergency medicine; anaesthesiology; dentistry; dermatology; gynaecology; laboratory medicine; microbiology, virology; neurology; ophthalmology; orthopaedics; otorhinolaryngology; pathology; paediatrics; pharmacology; public health; physical and rehabilitative medicine; psychology; psychosomatic medicine; radiology, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy; surgery (including subspecialities); urology; student; other.