02128nas a2200229   4500000000100000008004100001260001500042100001600057700001800073700001700091700002000108700002000128700001900148700001500167700002400182245008100206856004300287300001200330490000800342520153400350022001401884       2024                            d  c2024-10-011 aPaul Whaley1 aRobyn B Blain1 aDerek Draper1 aAndrew A Rooney1 aVickie R Walker1 aStephen Wattam1 aRob Wright1 aCarlijn R Hooijmans00aIdentifying assessment criteria for in vitro studies: a method and item bank  uhttps://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfae083  a240-2530 v2013 aTo support the development of appraisal tools for assessing the quality of in vitro studies, we developed a method for literature-based discovery of study assessment criteria, used the method to create an item bank of assessment criteria of potential relevance to in vitro studies, and analyzed the item bank to discern and critique current approaches for appraisal of in vitro studies. We searched four research indexes and included any document that identified itself as an appraisal tool for in vitro studies, was a systematic review that included a critical appraisal step, or was a reporting checklist for in vitro studies. We abstracted, normalized, and categorized all criteria applied by the included appraisal tools to create an “item bank” database of issues relevant to the assessment of in vitro studies. The resulting item bank consists of 676 unique appraisal concepts from 67 appraisal tools. We believe this item bank is the single most comprehensive resource of its type to date, should be of high utility for future tool development exercises, and provides a robust methodology for grounding tool development in the existing literature. Although we set out to develop an item bank specifically targeting in vitro studies, we found that many of the assessment concepts we discovered are readily applicable to other study designs. Item banks can be of significant value as a resource; however, there are important challenges in developing, maintaining, and extending them of which researchers should be aware.  a1096-6080