News

A vision for the European Journal of Clinical Investigation: note from the new editors

Excellent editorial setting up a clear vision for implementing steps leading to more transparent and accurate reporting; read at Eur J Clin Invest. 2010 Jan;40(1):1-3

Revealing the wood and the trees: reporting qualitative research

The article by Blignault and Ritchie provides a very useful general guide to presenting qualitative research for publication. The article is very clearly written and includes many examples of good reporting. Although there is no CONSORT-type checklist to follow anyone writing up the qualitative study would  benefit from its reading.

The article is now included in the EQUATOR Library "“ Guidance for reporting qualitative research
Blignault I, Ritchie J. Revealing the wood and the trees: reporting qualitative research. Health Promot J Austr 2009 Aug;20(2):140-5. PMID:19642963 

Reporting guidelines in animal research

The need for clear, transparent and accurate reporting is not confined to the area of clinical research; it is a clearly universal requirement of any good research publication.

Recently, two initiatives were established to improve the reporting of animal research.

The REFLECT Statement (Reporting Guidelines For Randomized Controlled Trials for livestock and food safety) provides 22-item checklist guiding the authors to address unique aspects of reporting of livestock trials. The REFLECT Statement is a result of a robust development process that is clearly described in the paper (see reference below). It is based on the CONSORT Statement (guideline for reporting randomised trials with human participants); the checklist clearly indicates which parts were left out of the original CONSORT and what are the additions. This is a very good practice that helps users to put the new guideline in the context of existing guidance. Unfortunately we do not always see this in new guidelines using  previously published work (e.g. the REHBaR guideline for reporting experiments in homeopathic basic research mentioned above lifted some of the CONSORT items verbatim but without making this clear)

References:
O'Connor AM, Sargeant JM, Gardner IA, Dickson JS, Torrence ME, Dewey CE, et al. The REFLECT Statement: Methods and Processes of Creating Reporting Guidelines for Randomized Controlled Trials for Livestock and Food Safety by Modifying the CONSORT Statement. Zoonoses Public Health 2010 Jan 12.
PMID:20070653   
Sargeant JM, O'Connor AM, Gardner IA, Dickson JS, Torrence ME, Dohoo IR, et al. The REFLECT Statement: Reporting Guidelines for Randomized Controlled Trials in Livestock and Food Safety: Explanation and Elaboration. Zoonoses Public Health 2010 Jan 12.
PMID:20070652   

Website: http://www.reflect-statement.org/statement/

Another initiative to improve reporting of research using animals is driven by the UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). Carol Kilkenny and her colleagues carried out a large comprehensive survey of the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting (see reference below).The survey identified a number of issues "“ particularly reporting omissions. Building on these results, the authors are developing a set of reporting guidelines to assist transparent and complete reporting of animal research.
Kilkenny C, Parsons N, Kadyszewski E, Festing MF, Cuthill IC, Fry D, et al. Survey of the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting of research using animals. PLoS One 2009;4(11):e7824. PMID:19956596