INSPECT-SR: INveStigating ProblEmatic Clinical Trials in Systematic Reviews#
INSPECT-SR (Wilkinson et al., 2025) is Cochrane’s Trustworthiness Assessment tool for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in systematic reviews. It was designed for health RCTs but has utility in other fields too.
It contains 21 checks across four domains to help judge whether a study’s data and findings can be trusted sufficiently to include it in a research synthesis (or indeed cite it in other contexts). It does not assess internal or external validity (which are covered by Risk of Bias tools and GRADE), nor does it cover conflicts of interest.
See https://inspect.sr for the latest version of the guidance on how to apply its checks.
| Domain | Focus |
|---|---|
| Domain 1 | Inspecting post-publication notices |
| Domain 2 | Inspecting conduct, governance and transparency |
| Domain 3 | Inspecting text and figures |
| Domain 4 | Inspecting results in the study |