Tool documents

TACIT Grid - a template for completing assessments (2 September 2025 version)

TACIT guidance document - a detailed guide including instructions for users as well as describing the tool’s scope, empirical basis, development process (2 September 2025 version)

TACIT Excel - an Excel-based version of TACIT allowing ease of use for completing TACIT assessments and displaying assessments in Tables and Figures

TACIT Excel User Guide - a guide explaining how to use the Excel-based version of TACIT.

Training

How to address conflicts of interests in systematic reviews using TACIT. Cochrane webinar on February 17, 2026

Assessing conflicts of interest in systematic reviews using TACIT. Online workshop by Cochrane Sweden on March 10, 2026.

Publications

Faltinsen E, Østengaard L, Boutron I, Stewart LA, Hróbjartsson A, Lundh A. User experience of Tool for Addressing Conflicts of Interest in Trials (TACIT) prototype: interview and questionnaire study. J Clin Epidemiol. 2025:112003.

Faltinsen E, Todorovac A, Boutron I, Stewart LA, Hróbjartsson A, Lundh A. A structured approach to information retrieval improved identification of funding and researchers' conflicts of interest in trials included in Cochrane reviews. J Clin Epidemiol. 2023;161:104-115.

Nejstgaard CH, Laursen DRT, Lundh A, Hróbjartsson A. Commercial funding and estimated intervention effects in randomized clinical trials: Systematic review of meta-epidemiological studies. Res Synth Methods. 2023;14:144-55.

Nejstgaard CH, Lundh A, Abdi S, Clayton G, Gelle MHA, Laursen DRT, Olorisade BK, Savović J, Hróbjartsson A; COMFIT Consortium. Combining meta-epidemiological study datasets on commercial funding of randomised clinical trials: Database, methods, and descriptive results of the COMFIT study. Res Synth Methods. 2022;13:214-28.

Østengaard L, Lundh A, Tjørnhøj-Thomsen T, Abdi S, Gelle MHA, Stewart LA, Boutron I, Hróbjartsson A. Influence and management of conflicts of interest in randomised clinical trials: qualitative interview study. BMJ. 2020;371:m3764. 

Lundh A, Rasmussen K, Østengaard L, Boutron I, Stewart LA, Hróbjartsson A. Systematic review finds that appraisal tools for medical research studies address conflicts of interest superficially. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020;120:104-15.

Boutron I, Page MJ, Higgins JPT, Altman DG, Lundh A, Hróbjartsson A. Chapter 7: Considering bias and conflicts of interest among the included studies. In: Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, Cumpston M, Li T, Page MJ, Welch VA (editors). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.4 (updated August 2023). Cochrane, 2023. Available from www.training.cochrane.org/handbook.

Lundh A, Boutron I, Stewart L, Hróbjartsson A. What to do with a clinical trial with conflicts of interest. BMJ Evid Based Med. 2020;25:157-8.

Savović J, Akl EA, Hróbjartsson A. Financial conflicts of interest in clinical research. Intensive Care Med. 2018;44:1767-9.

Page MJ, Boutron I, Hansen C, Altman DG, Hróbjartsson A. Assessing risk of bias in studies that evaluate health care interventions: recommendations in the misinformation age. J Clin Epidemiol. 2018;97:133-6.