Abstract

To guarantee the inter-reviewer reliability is very important in evaluating the quality of large number of clinical research papers by multiple reviewers. We cannot find reports on statistical methods for evaluating reliability for multiple raters in clinical research field. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the statistical methods focused on kappa statistic and five kinds of loglinear models for, which can be applied when evaluating the reliability of multiple raters. We have applied these methods to the result of a project, in which seven reviewers have evaluated the quality of 33 papers with regard to four aspects of paper contents including study hypothesis, study design, study population, study method, data analysis and interpretation. Among the five loglinear models including Symmetry model, Conditional symmetry model, Quasi-symmetry model, Independence model, and Quasi-independence model, Quasi-symmetry model shows the best model of fitting. And the level of reliability among seven reviewers revealed to be acceptable as meaningful.

• Keywords: reliability;multiple reviewers;kappa;loglinear model