Abstract
We developed a reporting guideline to provide authors with guidance about what should be reported when writing a paper for publication in a scientific journal using a particular type of research design: the single-case experimental design. This report describes the methods used to develop the Single-Case Reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) 2016. As a result of 2 online surveys and a 2-day meeting of experts, the SCRIBE 2016 checklist was developed, which is a set of 26 items that authors need to address when writing about single-case research. This article complements the more detailed SCRIBE 2016 Explanation and Elaboration article (Tate et al., 2016) that provides a rationale for each of the items and examples of adequate reporting from the literature. Both these resources will assist authors to prepare reports of single-case research with clarity, completeness, accuracy, and transparency. They will also provide journal reviewers and editors with a practical checklist against which such reports may be critically evaluated. We recommend that the SCRIBE 2016 is used by authors preparing manuscripts describing single-case research for publication, as well as journal reviewers and editors who are evaluating such manuscripts. Reporting guidelines, such as the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) Statement, improve the reporting of research in the medical literature (Turner et al., 2012). Many such guidelines exist and the CONSORT Extension to Nonpharmacological Trials (Boutron et al., 2008) provides suitable guidance for reporting between-groups intervention studies in the behavioral sciences. The CONSORT Extension for N-of-1 Trials (CENT 2015) was developed for multiple crossover trials with single individuals in the medical sciences (Shamseer et al., 2015; Vohra et al., 2015), but there is no reporting guideline in the CONSORT tradition for single-case research used in the behavioral sciences. We developed the Single-Case Reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) 2016 to meet this need. This Statement article describes the methodology of the development of the SCRIBE 2016, along with the outcome of 2 Delphi surveys and a consensus meeting of experts. We present the resulting 26-item SCRIBE 2016 checklist. The article complements the more detailed SCRIBE 2016 Explanation and Elaboration article (Tate et al., 2016) that provides a rationale for each of the items and examples of adequate reporting from the literature. Both these resources will assist authors to prepare reports of single-case research with clarity, completeness, accuracy, and transparency. They will also provide journal reviewers and editors with a practical checklist against which such reports may be critically evaluated.
Highlights
Scientific background Describe the scientific background to identify issue/s under analysis, current scientific knowledge, and gaps in that knowledge base
We developed a reporting guideline to provide authors with guidance about what should be reported when writing a paper for publication in a scientific journal using
We developed the Single-Case Reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) 2016 to meet this need
Summary
The Delphi technique is a group decision-making tool and consensus procedure that is well suited to establishing expert consensus on a given set of items (Brewer, 2007). We identified 131 experts worldwide as potential Delphi panel members (128 for the initial round and an additional three participants were added at Round 2) based on their track record of published work in the field of single-case research (either methodologically or empirically based) and/or reporting guideline development. Each participant received a folder which contained reference material pertinent to the SCRIBE project, and results from both rounds of the Delphi survey. We present a screen-shot of the PowerPoint presentation of one of the items (Item 31 of the Delphi survey, Treatment Fidelity, which was broadened to encompass procedural fidelity as a result of discussion at the consensus meeting, and became item 17 of the SCRIBE). One of the Delphi items relating to meta-analysis, was considered not to represent a minimum standard of reporting for single-case experimental designs and was deleted
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