A case study of the informative value of risk of bias and reporting quality assessments for systematic reviews

Table 5 Examples of potential SR procedures to evaluate the included studies and when to use them

Specific interest in RQ and/or RoB	Study sampling^a	Tool/elements	Procedure
Yes, SR results will be used to plan future experiments/treatment guidelines	100%	Cochrane/SYRCLE	Full RoB analysis
Yes, to show the importance and effect of reporting measures on an outcome	100%	Check ARRIVE/CONSORT	Analysis of selected elements with high DIV value
Only to see if reporting in my field is different from other fields	Random: 5–50%	Check ARRIVE/CONSORT	Analysis of selected elements with high DIV value
No but interested in all aspects of study quality	Random: 5–50%	Cochrane/SYRCLE/Check ARRIVE/CONSORT	Full RoB/RQ analysis of a subset of the included studies to get an overall crude idea of the level of evidence in all aspects
No and only interested in specific aspects of study quality	Random: 25–50%	Cochrane/SYRCLE/Check ARRIVE/CONSORT	Analysis of selected elements with high DIV value

^aFor sampling, the total sample size is a relevant factor. It is important to sample, e.g. 50% for reviews that include ≤ 50 papers in total, assessing RoB/RQ in at least 25 of them, while 5% results in an informative sample for reviews including ≥ 1000 primary studies

ISSN: 2046-4053