The Delphi technique is a qualitative research method for building group consensus and has been widely adopted in the development of guidance documents. Published Delphi studies vary considerably in methodological quality, yet no dedicated critical appraisal tool existed until the Delphi Critical Appraisal Tool (DCAT) was published in 2025. DCAT comprises four core items (anonymity, iteration, statistical summary and controlled feedback) and twelve additional items (justification for Delphi, type of Delphi, panelist expertise, panelist retention, preliminary work, design choices, survey questions, response items, pilot test, data analysis, transparent reporting and ethical issues) and represents the first discipline-independent critical appraisal tool for Delphi studies, applicable to study protocol development, peer review and published study appraisal. This article interprets the item structure and appraisal logic of DCAT, aiming to facilitate quality appraisal and methodological improvement of Delphi studies.
Expert consensus, as an important supplement to clinical practice guidelines, supports clinical decision-making when evidence is lacking or controversial. Compared to clinical practice guidelines, the presentation of expert consensus is more diverse. Currently, there are no reporting guidelines for expert consensus in clinical and public health decision-making. The RIGHT (Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare) checklist is the most commonly used international guideline reporting standard, and is often referred to when writing expert consensus. However, the RIGHT checklist does not include a section on consensus formation methods; while the ACCORD (ACcurate COnsensus Reporting Document) checklist includes reporting requirements for consensus formation methods, but not for reporting recommendations. Therefore, this article integrates the RIGHT and ACCORD reporting checklists and proposes an integrated reporting framework (TIMER-DO) to help authors combine these two commonly used international reporting standards and complete the standardized reporting of expert consensus.
