WORKSHOP: Reporting guidelines: a tool to increase the quality of health research published in your journal

Date and venue: 7 September 2013, 9.30 – 12.30; St Gallen 1- Swissotel, Chicago, USA (attached to the 7th congress on peer review)

Workshop outline:   

Journal editors play an important role in the dissemination of research findings and have power to considerably improve the reporting quality of research papers they publish. Some journals are already leading the way but all journals need to act in accord to raise reporting quality across all clinical areas.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the importance of transparency and accuracy in reporting health research and be familiar with common deficiencies in reporting of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and observational studies
• Understand the key concepts of reporting guidelines and their efficient use by different professional groups with the main focus on editors and peer reviewers
• Learn about the main elements of three major reporting guidelines: CONSORT Statement (reporting RCTs); the PRISMA Statement (reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses evaluating healthcare interventions) and STROBE (reporting epidemiological studies)
• Understand and efficiently use the EQUATOR Network internet-based resource centre and training programme
• Discuss implementation of reporting guidelines in health research journals (instructions to authors, editorial and review processes, authors’ compliance, etc.)

Facilitators:

Prof Doug Altman, Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, UK
Dr David Moher, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada, Canada
Dr Iveta Simera, Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, UK
Guest speaker: Dr Jason Roberts, Managing editor, Headache, US

Programme and slides:

Programme (PDF)
Introduction, workshop agenda, learning objectives (PDF) (Iveta Simera)
Transparency and accuracy in reporting health research (PDF) (Doug Altman)
Reporting guidelines and EQUATOR resources (PDF) (Iveta Simera)
Key methodology guidelines: CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE (PDF) (David Moher)
Implementing reporting guidelines in journals (PDF) (Iveta Simera)
Developing and implementing reporting guidelines policy: notes from a small journal (PDF), short presentation as given (Jason Roberts); long presentation (PDF) (contains helpful practical details)