Table 1.

Principles for country-level TB modelling

1	Relevance: modelling should assess the policies and outcomes relevant to the decision-maker
2	Realism: modelling should explicitly consider implementation challenges that may reduce the effectiveness or increase the costs of interventions when introduced into routine practice, and examine the plausibility of assumptions required for policy success
3	Appropriateness of model structure: the model design should be justified in terms of the questions and local context being considered—the structure should be sufficiently detailed to represent the mechanisms generating outcomes, but avoid unnecessary complexity
4	Consideration of all evidence: modelling should consider all available evidence relevant to the decision problem
5	Validation: where possible, model results should be compared with evidence not used for model parameterisation or calibration to understand the consistency of modelling results with other evidence
6	Informativeness: modelled analyses should report a rich set of results describing consequences for a range of outputs and outcomes to provide a deeper understanding of the scenarios being modelled and model functioning
7	Transparency: modelling results should be accompanied by a clear description of the evidence that supports the main findings, limitations of the modelling approach, uncertainty in modelled estimates and the sensitivity of results to different assumptions. Conflicts of interest should be avoided if possible, or otherwise described explicitly
8	Timeliness: modelling activities should be organised to provide results at the time they are required for decision-making
9	Country ownership: modelling should be conducted with the full participation of local stakeholders at each stage of the process
10	Iteration: modelling should involve an iterative process of engagement and be reconsidered in the light of new evidence