Journal of clinical epidemiology
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The "credibility ceiling" method was proposed to conduct sensitivity analysis for unmeasured confounding and other forms of bias in meta-analyses and has been used in umbrella reviews to grade evidence strength. However, we explain that the method has fundamental statistical flaws. ⋯ Given the fundamental problems with the credibility ceiling method and its demonstrated potential for misleading conclusions, we recommend against its use.
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The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is compiled from a number of sources, including PubMed and Embase. Since 2017, we have increased the number of sources feeding into CENTRAL and improved the efficiency of our processes through the use of application programming interfaces, machine learning, and crowdsourcing.Our objectives were twofold: (1) Assess the effectiveness of Cochrane's centralized search and screening processes to correctly identify references to published reports which are eligible for inclusion in Cochrane systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). (2) Identify opportunities to improve the performance of Cochrane's centralized search and screening processes to identify references to eligible trials. ⋯ This analysis has shown that Cochrane's centralized search and screening processes are highly sensitive. It has also helped us to understand better why some references to eligible RCTs have been missed. The CSS is playing a critical role in helping to populate CENTRAL and is moving us toward making CENTRAL a comprehensive repository of RCTs.