Weight-of-Evidence (WoE)
At a glance: A structured judgment that weighs all available evidence together.
Weight-of-Evidence is a systematic, integrative approach for assessing all available data related to a specific question. It considers multiple lines of evidence rather than relying on one study and places the greatest emphasis on high-quality studies. 39 It is interpretive, not mechanical: no single weighing factor generally determines the result, and factors are judged in combination rather than scored by adding pluses and minuses. 40 Weight-of-Evidence can be used to assess causal links between key events in an AOP.