Evaluation of the Cochrane tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized clinical trials: overview of published comments and analysis of user practice in Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews

Table 1 Characteristics of published comments on the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized clinical trials—evaluation of the Cochrane tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized clinical trials

Publication characteristics	Number of comments: 68 (100 %)
Publication category
Major^a	15 (22 %)
Minor^b	53 (78 %)
Publication type
Comment/editorial/letter^c	6 (9 %)
Survey/qualitative case study	33 (49 %)
Experimental/observational study	23 (33 %)
Other	6 (9 %)
Tool version considered/applied
2011	54 (79 %)
2008	6 (9 %)
Not specified	8 (12 %)
Year of publication
2008–2010	9 (13 %)
2011	10 (15 %)
2012	8 (12 %)
2013	14 (20 %)
2014	27 (40 %)

^aMajor comments were defined as longer comments with a substantial reflection (typically ≥100 words of text) on the strengths or challenges of the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized clinical trials (i.e. the tool)
^bMinor comments were defined as shorter comments without a substantial reflection (typically ≤100 words of text) on the strengths or challenges of the tool.
^cComments, editorials and letters (to the editor) were defined as such if self-declared

ISSN: 2046-4053