Different miRNA target prediction algorithms use different scores which is not comparable directly. So what is the most reliable way to get the consensus of results produced by different miRNA target prediction tools?
You have several choices based on your purpose. Each of these algorithms has different criteria for finding targets. Some of them find predicted targets; some find validated targets, and some can find both and so on. After that, you can list the targets of each of these algorithms separately (for example, in Excel), then you can use the same Excel or the Venny online tool (link below) to find the identical top targets between them.
This way, you use a combination of several algorithms, and the result will be more reliable.
You have several choices based on your purpose. Each of these algorithms has different criteria for finding targets. Some of them find predicted targets; some find validated targets, and some can find both and so on. After that, you can list the targets of each of these algorithms separately (for example, in Excel), then you can use the same Excel or the Venny online tool (link below) to find the identical top targets between them.
This way, you use a combination of several algorithms, and the result will be more reliable.
I understand that this method is not entirely reliable; however, some researchers believe that these different criteria are the strength of this approach. But if you don't want to follow the combination approach, you can use tools4mirs ( https://tools4mirs.org/software/target_prediction/?computable=on ), it is a comprehensive service to compute and collect data from various target prediction tool. You can define your criteria as you like to find the tools that are closest to your aim.