OBJECTIVES: Economic evaluations of drug therapy are important, but time consuming and costly. Analyses that are easily transferable (i.e. adjustable to a different jurisdiction without completely rebuilding the model) may potentially save time and resources. We aimed to develop a tool to assess and summarize the general transferability of model-based analyses. METHODS: Medline was searched for literature on transferability published between 2002 and June 2011. Existing checklists for economic evaluations were adapted to create a checklist of 16 key factors to assess the general transferability of model-based analyses. This tool was used to score 11 recently published economic evaluations and identify how well specific factors were addressed.  RESULTS: Transferability scores of the selected papers ranged from 53–91%, illustrating the wide variability in the quality of reporting. Across all studies, the least well addressed transferability factors included the discussion of the generalizability of the study results (lacking or incomplete in all studies), adequate description of resources and costs employed in the analysis (particularly separate reporting of resource use and unit costs), and adequate descriptions of the method and/or populations used to derive utility values. The best addressed transferability factors included those relating to country, currency and discount rates. Even if studies scored highly overall, it may still be difficult to transfer the findings to a different setting if they failed to report insufficient detail on one or two key parameters. CONCLUSIONS: The general transferability of a model-based economic evaluation from one country or jurisdiction to another can be quickly assessed by the application of a simple checklist of key transferability factors. It is important that authors ensure that they report their economic analysis in a detailed and transparent fashion.