News

PLoS Medicine has recently published findings of the EQUATOR Network's survey of developers of 30 generic reporting guidelines (1).

The main points highlighted by the survey are:

• High-quality reporting in scientific publications is crucial for dissemination and implementation of research findings.
• Reporting guidelines, such as the CONSORT Statement, can improve accuracy and reliability of research reports, providing that they are themselves developed to high standards.
• This survey of developers of 37 generic reporting guidelines showed that: development methods were broadly similar but varied in important details; development usually took a long time; only half of the guideline developers had strategies for dissemination and implementation of their guidelines; and securing sufficient funding to develop, evaluate, and disseminate guidelines was identified as a major problem.
• There is a need to harmonise methods used in the development of reporting guidelines and concentrate more on their active promotion and implementation.
• The EQUATOR Network (http://www.equator-network.org/) is a new initiative that aims to improve the quality of scientific literature. It provides resources and training on reporting of health research and assists in the development, dissemination, and implementation of reporting guidelines.

PLoS Medicine team accompanied the publication by an excellent press release picking up the most important issue of securing financial support for these initiatives.


BMC Medicine published a commentary ‘Helping editors, peer reviewers and authors improve the clarity, completeness and transparency of reporting health research’ (2) focusing on the importance of good reporting of health research and the role of the EQUATOR Network in achieving this.

Both articles are freely available online.
 

References

1. Simera I, Altman DG, Moher D, Schulz KF, Hoey J. Guidelines for reporting health research: the EQUATOR network's survey of guideline authors. PLoS Med 2008 Jun 24;5(6):e139, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050139
2. Moher D, Simera I, Schulz KF, Hoey J, Altman DG. Helping editors, peer reviewers and authors improve the clarity, completeness and transparency of reporting health research. BMC Med 2008;6:13, doi:10.1186/1741-7015-6-13

 

 

Contact: Iveta Simera, iveta.simera@csm.ox.ac.uk