We host one of the largest dedicated collections of systematic reviews on the web, with over 550,000 reviews available. With this vast resource comes a responsibility: ensuring that users critically assess the validity of the systematic reviews they access.

Systematic reviews sit at the top of the evidence pyramid/hierarchy, but their inclusion in this category does not automatically guarantee high-quality evidence. While well-conducted systematic reviews deserve their status, many are poorly executed and risk misleading users.

To address this, we are developing a scoring system designed to help users gauge the reliability of systematic reviews. By identifying markers of both rigorous methodology and potential weaknesses, this system will generate a score displayed alongside each review, providing a quick and informed assessment of its credibility. Below is a mock-up of how each score will look:

There are 4 graphics of which 3 are actual, meaningful, scores:

  • Appears promising
  • Potential concerns
  • Bad

We’re working through a few issues but everything is looking promising for a release in the near future (famous last words).