Table 3.

Characteristics of guidance documents (n = 13)

First author, year of publication	Title	Objective	Research institute	Country of the first author	Methods used to develop the guidance
Brignardello-Petersen 2018 [22]	Advances in the GRADE approach to rate the certainty in estimates from a network meta-analysis	Present recent advances to grade the certainty of the evidence	GRADE Working Group	Canada	NR
CADTH 2015 [52]	Guidance document on reporting indirect comparisons	Provide guidance on reporting indirect comparisons	CADTH	Canada	NR
Chaimani 2019 [53]	Undertaking network meta-analyses	Introduce/provide an overview of concepts, assumptions and methods of NMAs	Cochrane	UK	NR
Chaimani 2017a [54]	Additional considerations are required when preparing a protocol for a systematic review with multiple interventions	Highlight aspects of a standard systematic review protocol that may need modification when multiple interventions are to be compared	University of Ioannina School of Medicine	Greece	NR
Chaimani 2017b [55]	Common pitfalls and mistakes in the set-up, analysis and interpretation of results in network meta-analysis: what clinicians should look for in a published article	Provide a practical framework to assess the methodological robustness and reliability of results from network meta-analysis	University of Ioannina School of Medicine	Greece	NR
Coleman 2012 [56]	Use of mixed treatment comparisons in systematic reviews	Summarise available guidance for meta-analytic methods, identify analyses using these methods and summarize their characteristics, and identify rationale for selection/implementation/reporting of methods from investigators	Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)	United States	Review guidance documents and MTC literature, expert opinion
Cope 2014 [57]	A process for assessing the feasibility of a network meta-analysis: a case study of everolimus in combination with hormonal therapy versus chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer	Outline a general process for assessing the feasibility of performing a valid NMA of RCT	Mapi	Canada	NR
Dwan 2020 [58]	Editorial decisions in reviews with network meta-analysis	Present editorial considerations in reviews with NMA	Cochrane	UK	NR
Foote 2015 [59]	Network Meta-analysis: Users' Guide for Surgeons: Part I—Credibility	Show the application of evaluation criteria for determining the credibility of a NMA through an example pertinent to clinical orthopaedics	McMaster University	Canada	NR
Haute Autorité de Santé 2009 [60]	Indirect comparisons Methods and validity	Introduce and discuss indirect comparison methods	Haute Autorité de Santé	France	Review of literature, expert peer review
Hummela 2017 [61]	Work Package 4: Methodological guidance, recommendations and illustrative case studies for (network) meta-analysis and modelling to predict real-world effectiveness using individual participant and/or aggregate data	Summarise state-of-the-art methods in NMA, IPD meta-analysis and mathematical modelling to predict drug effectiveness based on RCT data and related software, and discuss their advantages and limitations	University of Bern	Switzerland	Review of literature
Laws 2019 [41]	A Comparison of National Guidelines for Network Meta-Analysis	Create a superset of requirements collated from available national guidelines for the conduct of NMAs	Amaris	UK	Review of literature
Welton 2020 [45]	Sources and synthesis of evidence; Update to evidence synthesis methods (CHTE2020)	Review existing and emerging methods for synthesising evidence on clinical effectiveness for decision-making in Health Technology Appraisals (HTA), including NMA	NICE Decision Support Unit	UK	NR

CADTH Canadian Agency For Drugs And Technologies In Health, NA not applicable, NICE-DSU National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Decision Support Unit checklist, NR not reported, MTC multiple treatment comparisons