Table 1.

Criteria for judgement of focus and comprehensiveness of reports of involvement in systematic reviews

Comprehensiveness Focus	‘Green’	‘Amber’	‘Red’	Not applicable
Methods or approaches to involvement in systematic reviews	Comprehensive description of one (or more) specific method or approach to the involvement in systematic reviews. Description sufficient to enable replication of methods.	A brief or partial description of one (or more) specific method or approach to the involvement in systematic reviews. Description sufficient to enable partial replication of methods.	Few details provided and/or inadequate description of the method or approach of involvement. Description insufficient to enable any replication of methods.	Paper does not aim to describe a particular method or approach to involvement.
Study of effectiveness	Reports a study which was specifically designed to explore the effect of involvement (on any outcome), including a comprehensive description of study design or methods.	Reports data which relates to measures of the effect of involvement (on any outcome), but inadequate description of study design or methods.	States or discusses outcomes relating to effect of involvement, but without measuring the effect, or without reporting how outcomes were measured.	Paper not focused on studying effectiveness.

These data will be presented within tables, and a visual representation of the volume and comprehensiveness of evidence provided. The tabulated data on the breadth and comprehensiveness of each of the included papers will inform iterative team discussions regarding stepwise expansion of the searches. Following completion of the final step of searching, the complete tabulated dataset will be used to determine which papers are included within the syntheses focused on (A) methods and approaches to involvement, (B) evidence of effect of involvement. The methods specific to each of these two syntheses are described below