Over the weekend we started to rollout the RCT score:

One thing you might spot is that there are two different types of scores. The newer score are the top two and the older Risk of Bias score at the bottom. This will be in place for a few weeks as we overwrite the old method of scoring with the new one!

Each RCT will see a scale like this:

And if you click on the question mark on the right-hand side you’ll see a pop-up explainer:

As per previous scores, the use of scores is not without criticism – but clearly we feel it’s worthwhile – here’s an old discuss on the topic. Also, a significant drawback is that it’s based on abstracts. But the rationale is not to do a full critical appraisal but to help highlight potential problems with the trial. The user is then free to do a full appraisal.