UK EQUATOR Centre
The UK EQUATOR Centre, based at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), University of Oxford, focuses on national activities aimed at raising awareness and supporting the adoption of good research reporting practices. The Centre works with partner organisations and initiatives and contributes to the work of the EQUATOR Network as a whole. The UK EQUATOR Centre is also the head office of the EQUATOR Network.
The key focus of the UK EQUATOR Centre
- EQUATOR website (www.equator-network.org)
Development and maintenance of online resources, including Library for Health research reporting and Toolkits - Education and training
Organising workshops, courses, seminars, conferences for researchers, research students, editors and peer reviewers (/category/events/all-past-events/). To hear about EQUATOR courses in Oxford, please join our mailing list by sending a blank email to equator-oxford-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. - Collaborative activities to raise reporting standards
UK Health Research Authority, Pan American Health Organisation, Global Health Network (focus on low and middle-income countries) - Research into oncology research
Assessment of methodology issues and development of resources for researchers, editors and reviewers
UK EQUATOR Centre staff
Gary Collins, Director of the UK EQUATOR Centre
Professor Gary Collins is Head of Prognosis Methodology and Professor of Medical Statistics at the University of Oxford, UK. His research interests are primarily focussed on aspects surrounding the development and validation multivariable prediction (prognostic) models (design, analysis and reporting). He is also interested in the conduct and reporting of studies developing and validating risk prediction models and has published extensively in this area.
Gary led the development of the TRIPOD reporting guideline for clinical prediction models and is a member of the GATHER working group developing guidance for reporting global health estimates. He is also interested in the systematic appraisal of prognostic studies and is an author of the CHARMS Checklist for conducting systematic reviews of prediction modelling studies. He has more than 120 peer-reviewed articles, editorials and commentaries, including 18 in the ‘big 6′ medical journals, and is the first or last author of more than 50 articles.
Doug Altman (1948-2018), Founding Director of the UK EQUATOR Centre
Professor Doug Altman was Professor of Statistics in Medicine at the University of Oxford, UK and founder of the Centre for Statistics in Medicine. He was a co-founder of the EQUATOR Network, chair of the EQUATOR Steering Group, and Founding Director of the UK EQUATOR Centre.
Doug published over 800 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including many aimed at clarifying statistical methods and ideas for medical researchers. He was the author of Practical Statistics for Medical Research (1991) and co-editor of Statistics with Confidence (1989 and 2000) and Systematic Reviews in Health Care (1995 and 2001). He was a statistical advisor to the Cochrane Collaboration and the BMJ. Doug had a long-standing interest in the reporting of medical research and was an executive member of several groups working on reporting guidelines, including CONSORT for randomised trials, QUOROM / PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE for epidemiological studies, and REMARK for tumour marker prognostic studies.
Shona Kirtley, Knowledge and Information Manager | Senior Research Information Specialist
Shona Kirtley joined the EQUATOR Network at the Centre for Statistics in Medicine in February 2011. Her key responsibilities include developing and maintaining both this website and our library for health research reporting. She also provides information management and literature search support for the research and educational activities of the Network.
Shona graduated in 1999 with an MA (Hons) in Modern History from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and in 2001 obtained an MSc in Information and Library Studies from the University of Strathclyde. Before joining EQUATOR, Shona spent 7 years as the Project Co-ordinator/Information Specialist for the NHS Evidence Women’s Health Specialist Collection based in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Oxford. Shona has wide-ranging experience in the provision of evidence-based health information to a variety of different stakeholder groups and in devising and conducting comprehensive literature searches to support systematic reviews and other research studies.
Angela MacCarthy, Oncology Research Fellow
Angela MacCarthy’s research is part of a project funded by Cancer Research UK which aims to improve the quality of research in oncology. She is currently working on an exploratory study to describe and classify recently published research articles on the development and use of Artificial Intelligence in the diagnosis of lung cancer using imaging techniques.
Jennifer de Beyer, Publication & Dissemination Specialist
Dr Jen de Beyer teaches our academic writing, publication, and communication skills courses and develops resources on how to write fantastic health research articles, such as our toolkits. You’re also likely to find her promoting reporting guidelines and clear reporting through our social media channels (@EQUATORNetwork) and at conferences. Jen completed a doctorate in systems biology, focusing on biochemistry, and worked in academic editing before joining the UK EQUATOR Centre in 2015.
Michael Schlüssel, Medical Statistician
Dr Michael Maia Schlüssel is a medical statistician working on prognostic models and methodological research, focusing on assessing and proposing strategies to improve medical research quality, integrity, and transparency. He also teaches statistics and research design in our research and publication skills courses. He is a member of the international advisory board on methodology for the journals Neurosurgery and Operative Neurosurgery.
Michael’s research background includes collaborations with universities and research centres worldwide, focusing on the data analysis of large population-based epidemiological studies in nutritional epidemiology, maternal and child health, developmental origins of health and disease, and determinants of chronic diseases. Earning a BSc (2003), MSc (2006) and PhD (2010) in Nutrition from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, his postgraduate research focused on epidemiology with a strong statistics component. He moved to the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford in 2013 to work as a postdoctoral research assistant with the INTERGROWTH-21st project, then joined CSM in 2014.
Paula Dhiman, Medical Statistician
At the Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Dr Paula Dhiman investigates how medical research is done, focusing on the methodological conduct and reporting of non-randomised research, with a view to helping improve the quality and integrity of future research. This is known as meta-research or “research on research”. Paula is passionate about statistical methodology and observational research and is particularly interested in prognostic/risk modelling.
Much of her work experience has been as a medical statistician within Primary Care at the University of Nottingham, where she was awarded a PhD in Medical Statistics (Primary Care) in 2015. More recently, she worked as an advisor for the Research Design Service (East Midlands), helping researchers and clinicians apply for funding for their research through study design, and grant writing.
Patricia Logullo, Post-doctoral Meta-Researcher
Dr Patrícia Logullo is passionate about reporting guidelines, medical writing, and scientific dissemination, and has spent the last 20 years helping researchers to publish their studies. She understands the difficulties and challenges researchers face every day, from writing to dealing with paper submissions. Before joining the UK EQUATOR team in 2018, Patrícia worked for medical journals and not-for-profit organisations in the medical, educational, and social work fields. She has also been a long-time Cochrane collaborator, working previously on translations and now in the Knowledge Translations Group. Currently, Patrícia works as a meta-researcher in the UK EQUATOR Centre, investigating solutions for better reporting in health research.
Caroline Struthers, Senior EQUATOR Research Fellow
Caroline returned to the UK EQUATOR Centre team in October 2019 to lead a three-year MRC-funded Methodology research project. The project involves developing and testing an online tool called “GoodReports” to help authors identify and use the most appropriate reporting guidelines when writing an article for a medical journal. The prototype of the GoodReports tool is freely available here: https://www.goodreports.org/. GoodReports won an international prize in 2018 for its potential to reduce the waste in research caused by poor reporting. https://www.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/news/equator-network-awarded-for-reducing-waste-in-research
From May 2014- March 2019 Caroline worked at the UK EQUATOR Centre as Education and Training Manager. She focussed on developing tools and training courses to help embed the use of reporting guidelines in the research process at every stage.
She is committed to patient and public involvement in health research. She is particularly interested in promoting the use of plain language when writing up research for publication in journals, and when making research publicly accessible through other channels
EQUATOR Publications
A list of publications from the EQUATOR Network team members is available.
The UK EQUATOR Centre had three presentations accepted to the 2020 REWARD EQUATOR Conference (Berlin, 20-22 February 2020).
EQUATOR Funding
We gratefully acknowledge financial contributions from all of our funders and sponsors. Without their generous support, we would not be able to fulfil our mission.
The main funding for the EQUATOR Network has been provided by the UK NHS National Knowledge Service, National Library for Health and National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council, Scottish Chief Scientist Office, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
We would like to thank Sir Muir Gray in particular for his continuing support of initiatives that aim to improve the quality of health care information and increase the availability of research findings presented in an accurate and transparent way.
Contact the UK EQUATOR Centre
Please send all general enquiries to equator@csm.ox.ac.uk
For queries relating to the library for health research reporting or the database of reporting guidelines, please contact
Shona Kirtley
Knowledge and Information Manager | Senior Research Information Specialist, UK EQUATOR Centre
shona.kirtley@csm.ox.ac.uk
For all other queries, please contact
Professor Gary Collins
Director, UK EQUATOR Centre
gary.collins@csm.ox.ac.uk
Postal address
EQUATOR Network and UK EQUATOR Centre
Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS)
University of Oxford
Botnar Research Centre, Windmill Road
Oxford, OX3 7LD
UK