- Resource Centre
- Library for health research reporting
- Reporting Guidelines
- Reporting guidelines under development
- Guidance on scientific writing
- Guidance developed by editorial groups
- Medical writers - additional resources
- Research ethics, publication ethics and good practice guidelines
- Development and maintenance of reporting guidelines
- Editorials introducing RGs
- Examples of guidelines for peer reviewers
- Case studies: RG implementation
- Examples of good research reporting
- Presentations
- EQUATOR 'pick'
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- Editors and peer reviewers
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- Promote responsible reporting
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- Links
Download the most frequently-used reporting guidelines:
Introduction to reporting guidelines
- What are reporting guidelines?
- What are the basic requirements
for reporting health research? - What guidance is available
for reporting research studies? - How to report data
Use the menu on the left to view reporting guidelines for each type of research.
What are reporting guidelines?
Reporting guidelines are statements that provide advice on how to report research methods and findings. Usually in the form of a checklist, flow diagram or explicit text, they specify a minimum set of items required for a clear and transparent account of what was done and what was found in a research study, reflecting in particular issues that might introduce bias into the research.Most widely recognised guidelines are based on the available evidence and reflect consensus opinion of experts in a particular field, including research methodologists and journal editors.
Reporting guidelines complement advice on scientific writing, which concentrates on the basic writing principles and styles of research reports and publications, and journals' instructions to authors.
What are the basic requirements for reporting health research?
Most biomedical journals require authors to comply with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). This document states the ethical principles in the conduct and reporting of research and provides recommendations relating to specific elements of editing and writing.
The Grey Literature International Steering Committee (GLISC) adapted the ICMJE requirements and created Guidelines for the Production of Scientific and Technical Reports. The guidelines cover ethical considerations, publishing and editorial issues, and report preparation.
What guidance is available for reporting research studies?
In addition to the Uniform Requirements, a number of reporting guidelines were developed by groups of experts to facilitate reporting of research studies. Medical journals, including BMJ, JAMA, Lancet, and NEJM often require compliance to all or some of the following reporting guidelines:
- CONSORT Statement (reporting of randomized controlled trials)
- STARD (reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies)
- STROBE (reporting of observational studies in epidemiology)
- PRISMA (reporting of systematic reviews), which replaced QUOROM
- MOOSE (reporting of meta-analyses of observational studies)
Our website provides a list of all reporting guidelines identified through systematic literature searches that provide guidance for reporting various types of research designs, components of research reports or specific medical conditions or procedures. We have not imposed any limits regarding the methods used for the guideline development.
We also provide examples of editorials introducing the guidelines in journals.
You can use the left-hand menu to browse these guidelines.
How to report data
The importance of sharing data from research studies is getting more and more attention. The Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigation (MIBBI) portal provides the latest information on data-reporting standards ('minimum information' checklist) like MIAME for microarray experiments.
Page last edited: 03 December 2009
