Guidance on the use of the weight of evidence approach in scientific assessments

Hardy, Anthony; Benford, Diane; Halldorsson, Thorhallur; Jeger, Michael John; Knutsen, Helle Katrine; More, Simon; Naegeli, Hanspeter; Noteborn, Hubert; Ockleford, Colin; Ricci, Antonia; Rychen, Guido; Schlatter, Josef R; Silano, Vittorio; Solecki, Roland; Turck, Dominique; Benfenati, Emilio; Chaudhry, Qasim Mohammad; Craig, Peter; Frampton, Geoff; Greiner, Matthias; Hart, Andrew; Hogstrand, Christer; Lambre, Claude; Luttik, Robert; Makowski, David; Siani, Alfonso; Wahlstroem, Helene; Aguilera, Jaime; Dorne, Jean‐Lou; Fernandez Dumont, Antonio; Hempen, Michaela; Valtueña Martínez, Silvia; Martino, Laura; Smeraldi, Camilla; Terron, Andrea; Georgiadis, Nikolaos; Younes, Maged

doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4971

Guidance on the use of the weight of evidence approach in scientific assessments

Hardy, Anthony; Benford, Diane; Halldorsson, Thorhallur; Jeger, Michael John; Knutsen, Helle Katrine; More, Simon; Naegeli, Hanspeter; Noteborn, Hubert; Ockleford, Colin; Ricci, Antonia; Rychen, Guido; Schlatter, Josef R; Silano, Vittorio; Solecki, Roland; Turck, Dominique; Benfenati, Emilio; Chaudhry, Qasim Mohammad; Craig, Peter; Frampton, Geoff; Greiner, Matthias; Hart, Andrew; Hogstrand, Christer; Lambre, Claude; Luttik, Robert; Makowski, David; Siani, Alfonso; Wahlstroem, Helene; Aguilera, Jaime; Dorne, Jean‐Lou; Fernandez Dumont, Antonio; Hempen, Michaela; Valtueña Martínez, Silvia; Martino, Laura; Smeraldi, Camilla; Terron, Andrea; Georgiadis, Nikolaos; Younes, Maged

Authors

Anthony Hardy

Diane Benford

Thorhallur Halldorsson

Michael John Jeger

Helle Katrine Knutsen

Simon More

Hanspeter Naegeli

Hubert Noteborn

Colin Ockleford

Antonia Ricci

Guido Rychen

Josef R Schlatter

Vittorio Silano

Roland Solecki

Dominique Turck

Emilio Benfenati

Qasim Mohammad Chaudhry

Professor Peter Craig p.s.craig@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Geoff Frampton

Matthias Greiner

Andrew Hart

Christer Hogstrand

Claude Lambre

Robert Luttik

David Makowski

Alfonso Siani

Helene Wahlstroem

Jaime Aguilera

Jean‐Lou Dorne

Antonio Fernandez Dumont

Michaela Hempen

Silvia Valtueña Martínez

Laura Martino

Camilla Smeraldi

Andrea Terron

Nikolaos Georgiadis

Maged Younes

Abstract

EFSA requested the Scientific Committee to develop a guidance document on the use of the weight of evidence approach in scientific assessments for use in all areas under EFSA's remit. The guidance document addresses the use of weight of evidence approaches in scientific assessments using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Several case studies covering the various areas under EFSA's remit are annexed to the guidance document to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach. Weight of evidence assessment is defined in this guidance as a process in which evidence is integrated to determine the relative support for possible answers to a question. This document considers the weight of evidence assessment as comprising three basic steps: (1) assembling the evidence into lines of evidence of similar type, (2) weighing the evidence, (3) integrating the evidence. The present document identifies reliability, relevance and consistency as three basic considerations for weighing evidence.

Citation

Hardy, A., Benford, D., Halldorsson, T., Jeger, M. J., Knutsen, H. K., More, S., …Younes, M. (2017). Guidance on the use of the weight of evidence approach in scientific assessments. EFSA Journal, 15(8), Article e04971. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4971

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 12, 2017
Online Publication Date	Aug 3, 2017
Publication Date	Aug 3, 2017
Deposit Date	Aug 18, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Nov 20, 2017
Journal	EFSA Journal
Print ISSN	1831-4732
Publisher	Wiley Open Access
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	15
Issue	8
Article Number	e04971
DOI	https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4971

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© 2017 European Food Safety Authority. EFSA Journal published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of European Food Safety Authority. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and no modifications or adaptations are made.