Reference standard

The benchmark against which the performance of other tests, procedures or investigations are compared.

Note 1: Synonyms include “gold standard”.

Reference

http://htaglossary.net/reference-standard;

Versi E. “Gold standard” is an appropriate term. BMJ. 1992 Jul 18;205(6846):187;

Claasen JAHR. The gold standard: not a golden standard. BMJ. 2005 May 14;330(7500):1121;

Bossuyt PM, Leeflang MM. Chapter 6: Developing Criteria for Including Studies. In: Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy. Version 0.4 updated September 2008. The Cochrane Collaboration; 2008.