Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research

How poor reporting affects you

Poor reporting creates waste on the same appalling scale at every level of health research. As the volume of health-related literature continues to explode:

Medical research makes prominent headlines because it explicitly affects people’s lives. However, clinical decision-making should only be informed by good evidence. Good evidence is published accurately, completely, and in a timely fashion; then processed into systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines. Good evidence can only come from GoodReports.

A coordinated effort by all parties involved in the different aspects of health-related research is urgently needed to ensure that the literature is populated with good evidence untainted by bad reporting. Journals play an indispensable role in disseminating research findings and are on the front line of quality assurance. Journal publishers and editors have the power to improve the quality of published evidence and substantially increase its use.