Other information will be required from each report of a study, including the citation, contact details for the authors of the study and any other details of sources of additional information about it (for example an identifier for the study that would allow it to be found in a register of trials). Of particular importance in many areas is the funding source of the study, or potential conflicts of interest of the study authors. Some review authors will wish to collect information on study characteristics that bear on the quality of the study’s conduct but that are unlikely to lead directly to a risk of bias, such as whether ethical approval was obtained and whether a sample size calculation was performed.
We recommend that review authors collect the key conclusions of the included study as reported by its authors. It is not necessary to report these conclusions in the review, but they should be used to verify results of analyses undertaken by the review authors, particularly in relation to the direction of effect. Further comments by the study authors, for example any explanations they provide for unexpected findings, might be noted. References to other studies that are cited in the study report may be useful, although review authors should be aware of the possibility of citation bias (see Chapter 10, Section 10.2.2.3).