***GUIDANCE*** 

The New Cochrane-Campbell Handbook for QES will be available in 2025.  Many chapters are already available on the Handbook website. https://training.cochrane.org/cochrane-campbell-handbook-qualitative-evidence-synthesis

Please use this guidance when conducting a QES. 

A new RevMan template and guidance for reporting QES will be available at the end of 2024.  Cochrane QES authors should use this resource. 

Cochrane EPOC review authors previously developed a practical template and guidance which played a valuable role in supporting QES review authors to publish their reviews in Cochrane.  This template has now been superceded by the above RevMan template and guidance. 

GRADE CERQual 

The GRADE-CERQual Approach is explained in an overview article in PLOS Medicine: Lewin S, Glenton C, Munthe-Kaas H, Carlsen B, Colvin CJ, Gülmezoglu M, et al. Using Qualitative Evidence in Decision Making for Health and Social Interventions: An Approach to Assess Confidence in Findings from Qualitative Evidence Syntheses (GRADE-CERQual). PLoS Med. 2015 Oct;12(10):e1001895+. Available from:http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001895.

In January 2018 additional guidance was issued on the use of CERQual for assessing confidence in synthesised findings from qualitative evidence syntheses. The series of seven papers covers issues of wider concern to producers of qualitative syntheses such as methodological limitations, relevance and dissemination bias:

1. Lewin S, Booth A, Glenton C, Munthe-Kaas H, Rashidian A, Wainwright M, et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings: introduction to the series. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0688-3 

2. Lewin S, Bohren M, Rashidian A, Munthe-Kaas H, Glenton C, Colvin CJ, Garside R, Noyes J, Booth A, et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings—paper 2: how to make an overall CERQual assessment of confidence and create a Summary of Qualitative Findings table. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0689-2 

3. Munthe-Kaas H, Bohren MA, Glenton C, Lewin S, Noyes J, Tunçalp Ö, Booth A et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings—paper 3: how to assess methodological limitations. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0690-9 

4. Colvin CJ, Garside R, Wainwright M, Munthe-Kaas H, Glenton C, Bohren MA, Carlsen B, Tunçalp Ö, Noyes J, Booth A  et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings—paper 4: how to assess coherence. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0691-8 

5. Glenton C, Carlsen B, Lewin S, Munthe-Kaas H, Colvin CJ, Tunçalp Ö, Bohren MA, Noyes J, Booth A et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings—paper 5: how to assess adequacy of data. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0692-7 

6. Noyes J, Booth A, Lewin S, Carlsen B, Glenton C, Colvin CJ, et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings–paper 6: how to assess relevance of the data. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0693-6 

7. Booth A, Lewin S, Glenton C, Munthe-Kaas H, Toews I, Noyes J, Rashidian A, Berg RC, Nyakango B et al. Applying GRADE-CERQual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings–paper 7: understanding the potential impacts of dissemination bias. Implementation Science; 2018 Jan;13(S1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0694-5 

Assessing conceptual richness and contextual thickness of primary qualitative studies.

Ames HMR, France EF, Cooper S, et al. Assessing qualitative data richness and thickness: development of an evidence-based tool for use in qualitative evidence synthesis. Cochrane Ev Synth. 2024; 2:e12059. doi:10.1002/cesm.12059

Assessing methodological strengths and limitations in primary qualitative studies

Munthe‐Kaas HM, Booth A, Sommer I, et al. Developing CAMELOT for assessing methodological limitations of qualitative research for inclusion in qualitative evidence syntheses. Cochrane Ev Synth. 2024;2:e12058. doi:10.1002/cesm.12058

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