Describing reporting guidelines for health research: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Objective To describe the process of development, content, and methods of implementation of reporting guidelines for health research. Study design and setting A systematic review of publications describing health research reporting guidelines developed using consensus. Results Eighty-one reporting guidelines for health research were included in the review. The largest number of guidelines do not focus on a specific study type (n=35; 43%), whereas those that do primarily refer to reporting of randomized controlled trials (n=16; 35%). Most of the guidelines (n=76; 94%) include a checklist of recommended reporting items, with a median of 21 checklist items (range: 5-64 items). Forty-seven (58%) reporting guidelines were classified as new guidance. Explanation documents were developed for 11 (14%) reporting guidelines. Reporting-guideline developers provided little information about the guideline development process. Developers of 50 (62%) reporting guidelines encouraged endorsement, most commonly by including guidelines in journal instructions to authors (n=18; 36%). Conclusions Reporting-guideline developers need to endeavor to maximize the quality of their product. Recently developed guidance is likely to facilitate more robust guideline development. Journal editors can be more confident in endorsing reporting guidelines that have followed these approaches.
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Evidence-based tools developed by experts could help streamline particular procedures that authors could follow to create reproducible and higher quality studies.
“Evidence-based tools developed by experts could help streamline particular procedures that authors could follow to create reproducible and higher quality studies. 18 -20”
From A Consensus-Based Checklist for Reporting of Survey Studies (CROSS) (2021) · cites this paper as [18]
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- Authors
- Moher, D., Weeks, L., Ocampo, M., Seely, D., Sampson, M., Altman, D. G., Schulz, K. F., Miller, D., Simera, I., Grimshaw, J., & Hoey, J.
- Affiliations
- Ottawa Hospital (CA)
- Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CA)
- Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CA)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Family Health International 360 (US)
- Queen's University (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-07
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 718-742
- ISSN
- 0895-4356 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2102381912
- Cited by
- 151
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 3.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Cancer Research UK
- Medical Research Council (MC_qA137931)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Clinical practice guidelines implementation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Delphi Technique in Research
- Keywords
- reporting guidelines, health research, consensus development, reporting checklist, randomized controlled trials, guideline endorsement, guideline development, research transparency
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Publishing, Quality Assurance, Health Care, Research Design, Guidelines as Topic, Peer Review, Research, Consensus, Biomedical Research
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