Quality assessment is when you appraise the methodological quality of each study selected for inclusion. It is an optional step in the process, but if you decide that you want to conduct quality assessment, you will have to publish a template just as you did in the Data Extraction stage. To being, click the blue Quality Assessment Template button:

When the template opens up, you can choose from one of three options:

• Use the default quality assessment tool (Cochrane Risk of Bias tool) without making modifications to the template. Please note that there currently is not Cochrane Risk of Bias2 template available in Covidence.
• Edit the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool by adding/editing domains. See this support document for more information on this process.
• Start from scratch and create a custom quality assessment template. This support document will explain how to select the options for your custom template.

It is a good idea to save the draft of your template periodically and especially if you leave the template. When you are finished, click the blue Publish button to make your template available to the other team members.

You can only have one template. Therefore, if you have a mix of study designs (e.g. experimental and observational) then you could add multiple quality assessment tools to one template. To differentiate the domains of each tool, add the study design or name of the tool to the domain labels.

To complete quality assessment for an article, click the Start button for the record you want to analyze and then click the Quality Assessment button. The PDF for the article will open along with the list of criteria you are using to evaluate the article.

Click the Make Judgement button for each criteria and then select the option that matches your assessment. You can also enter free text annotations or comments for the other reviews to read. Be sure to click the blue Save button to record your vote. 

Once you’ve finished data extraction and quality assessment for that study, click the blue Send for Consensus button.

NOTE: Once you’ve sent the form to consensus, this can’t be undone. Prior to that, however, you can edit your form by clicking the Edit button on the study. Complete both Data extraction and Quality Assessment (if required) before you send for consensus.