RANK ORDER of the <i>Dependency</i> of Consensus Indices’ on the NUMBER OF EXPERTS (Sample Size) (6–50) in a Delphi Survey

*The dependency value ranges from 0.000 to 1.000. A value of “0.000” shows complete independence of the Consensus Index from the Delphi survey characteristic examined (e.g., the sample size) whereas a value of “1.000” shows complete dependence. The dependency value is the maximum numeric difference observed for each consensus index when the number of experts in a simulated Delphi survey varied from 6 to 50. All Delphi consensus indices (the left column) typically take a value ranging from 0.000 to 1.000, except the Interquartile Range (IQR). For example, in the case of Clustered Mode, a maximum difference of 0.130 can be anticipated when the sample size varies from 6 to 50. For the IQR, the dependency data are normalized by dividing the difference observed in simulations by the maximum possible difference (9.000), i.e., the length of the Likert scale from 1 to 10 used in the simulations. Accordingly, the IQR can vary by a value of 0.396 when the Delphi sample size varies within the above range. RANK ORDER of the Dependency of Consensus Indices’ on the NUMBER OF EXPERTS (Sample Size) (6–50) in a Delphi Survey