Background:
Systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) form a fundamental part of evidence-based practice. However, factors predicting the publication of DTA meta-analyses have never been reported. This is important because if a higher proportion of DTA with certain characteristic (e.g. country of corresponding authors) are being published, this may lead to inaccurate decisions.

Objectives:
To examine the protocol factors that predict the publication of DTA meta-analyses.

Methods:
We searched Cochrane Library and PROSPERO register from inception to December 2017, to include DTA meta-analyses/systematic reviews, that should have a protocol published in advance or registered on PROSPERO. We extracted: name of first author, registration time, publication time of full text, accepted time of full text, time-to-publication, time-to-accepted, journal, number of included primary trials, number and name of institutes, funding, and conflicts of interest, etc. We will analyse time-to-publication and time-to-accepted using the Kaplan-Meier method. We will then use Cox proportional hazards models to predict the time-to-publication of DTA meta-analyses. We will calculate the hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. We will explore the association between selected variables and time-to-publication using univariate and multivariate regression analyses. We will conduct statistical analyses with SPSS 22.0.

Results:
This study is ongoing and available results will be presented at the Colloquium.

Conclusions:
This study is ongoing and available results will be presented at the Colloquium.