Table 1 Criteria to be followed in the presentation and formulation of recommendations

1. Identify the critical recommendations in guideline text using semantic indicators (such as ‘The Committee recommends. . .’ or ‘Whenever X, Y, and Z occur clinicians should . . .’) and formatting (e.g., bullets, enumeration, and bold face text).

2. Use consistent semantic and formatting indicators throughout the publication.

3. Group recommendations together in a summary section to facilitate their identification.

4. Do not use assertions of fact as recommendations. Recommendations must be decidable and executable.

5. Avoid embedding recommendation text deep within long paragraphs. Ideally, recommendations should be stated in the first (topic) sentence of the paragraph and the remainder of the paragraph can be used to amplify the suggested guidance.

6. Clearly and consistently assign evidence quality and recommendation strength in proximity to each recommendation and distinguish between the distinct concepts of quality of evidence and strength of recommendation.