Example See table 3 . Explanation We recommend that reviewers assess the risk of bias in the included studies using a standard approach with defined criteria ( see item 12 ) . They should report the results of any such assessments . 89 Reporting only summary data ( such as " two of eight trials adequately concealed allocation " ) is inadequate because it fails to inform readers which studies had the particular methodological shortcoming . A more informative approach is to explicitly report the methodological features evaluated for each study . The Cochrane Collaboration 's new tool for assessing the risk of bias also requests that authors substantiate these assessments with any relevant text from the original studies . 11 It is often easiest to provide these data in a tabular format , as in the example . However , a narrative summary describing the tabular data can also be helpful for readers . Item 20 : Results of individual studies For all outcomes considered ( benefits and harms ) , present , for each study , simple summary data for each intervention group and effect estimates and confidence intervals , ideally with a forest plot .