Guidance for systematic reviews

There are so many quality assessment tools provided by several research groups. In general, you can choose a tool depending on the study type. This is up to you to choose a tool – there is no golden standard for this.

• Cochrane group: https://methods.cochrane.org/bias/resources/rob-2-revised-cochrane-risk-bias-tool-randomized-trials
• JBI group: https://jbi.global/critical-appraisal-tools
• CASP group: https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/
• STROBE group: https://www.strobe-statement.org/checklists/
• Newcastle-Ottawa group: https://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp

All critical appraisal tools have their limitations. Although the tool you used might not be enough to detect the underlying methodological issues, there is not a gold standard for choosing a critical appraisal tool (Katrak 2004) and the choice of a tool would not impact the result of the evidence synthesis (Pieper 2014). So, your choice of the QC tool might not assess the scientific quality of a study accurately however the results of the analyses would not be changed even if you choose other QC tools.

• Katrak, P., Bialocerkowski, A.E., Massy-Westropp, N. et al. A systematic review of the content of critical appraisal tools. BMC Med Res Methodol 4, 22 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-4-22
• Pieper, D., Mathes, T. and Eikermann, M. (2014), Impact of choice of quality appraisal tool for systematic reviews in overviews. Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 7: 72-78. https://doi.org/10.1111/jebm.12097