Supporting non-experts in judging the credibility of risk assessments (CORA).

PURPOSE: One of the crucial communication issues that have to be tackled by risk assessors is how to provide a comprehensible and informative characterization of their findings. The CORA framework (CORA stands for credibility of risk assessment) is designed for helping non-experts in judging the credibility of risk assessments. The CORA framework can be used by (1) stakeholders and policy makers, to make an educated judgment about the credibility of an assessment, and (2) the authors of a risk assessment, to improve the evaluability of their reports. The CORA framework consists of 18 criteria, leading to six main recommendations. The framework's application is not limited to (EMF) risk assessment, for which it was originally developed, but can be used in any area of risk or hazard assessment.