EQUATOR: reporting guidelines for health research

Abstract

Despite the effort of researchers, editors and peer reviewers, the quality of health-research reporting in journal articles is unsatisfactory. 1 Chan AW Altman DG Epidemiology and reporting of randomised trials published in PubMed journals. Lancet. 2005; 365: 1159-1162 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (381) Google Scholar , 2 Mallett S Deeks J Halligan S Hopewell S Cornelius V Altman D Systematic reviews of diagnostic tests in cancer: review of methods and reporting. BMJ. 2006; 333: 413 Crossref PubMed Scopus (57) Google Scholar , 3 Mills E Loke YK Wu P et al. Determining the reporting quality of RCTs in clinical pharmacology. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2004; 58: 61-65 Crossref PubMed Scopus (47) Google Scholar , 4 Pocock SJ Collier TJ Dandreo KJ et al. Issues in the reporting of epidemiological studies: a survey of recent practice. BMJ. 2004; 329: 883 Crossref PubMed Scopus (221) Google Scholar , 5 Riley RD Abrams KR Sutton AJ et al. Reporting of prognostic markers: current problems and development of guidelines for evidence-based practice in the future. Br J Cancer. 2003; 88: 1191-1198 Crossref PubMed Scopus (116) Google Scholar , 6 Smidt N Rutjes AW van der Windt DA et al. Quality of reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies. Radiology. 2005; 235: 347-353 Crossref PubMed Scopus (111) Google Scholar Guidelines that specify a minimum set of items for reporting can improve the accuracy and transparency of publications, thus facilitating easier and more reliable appraisal of quality and relevance. During the past 10 years several internationally respected guidelines for the reporting of health research have been developed. 7 Bossuyt PM Reitsma JB Bruns DE et al. Towards complete and accurate reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy: the STARD initiative—standards for reporting of diagnostic accuracy. Clin Chem. 2003; 49: 1-6 Crossref PubMed Scopus (727) Google Scholar , 8 Moher D Cook DJ Eastwood S Olkin I Rennie D Stroup DF Improving the quality of reports of meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials: the QUOROM statement—quality of reporting of meta-analyses. Lancet. 1999; 354: 1896-1900 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3919) Google Scholar , 9 Moher D Schulz KF Altman DG The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomised trials. Lancet. 2001; 357: 1191-1194 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3048) Google Scholar , 10 von Elm E Altman DG Egger M Pocock SJ Gotzsche PC Vandenbroucke JP The strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies. PLoS Med. 2007; 4: e296 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2254) Google Scholar However, those guidelines are still not widely supported by medical journals 11 Altman DG for the CONSORT GroupEndorsement of the CONSORT statement by high impact medical journals: survey of instructions for authors. BMJ. 2005; 330: 1056-1057 Crossref PubMed Scopus (148) Google Scholar , 12 Smidt N Overbeke J de Vet H Bossuyt P Endorsement of the STARD statement by biomedical journals: survey of instructions for authors. Clin Chem. 2007; 53: 1983-1985 Crossref PubMed Scopus (31) Google Scholar or adhered to by researchers, and thus their potential impact is lessened.