Guidelines exist to streamline and improve the consistency of reporting when publishing. Guidelines, flowcharts, and checklists for various study designs are linked below.
Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research: The Library for health research reporting provides a searchable up-to-date collection of guidelines and policy documents related to health research reporting. These are aimed mainly at authors of research articles, journal editors, peer reviewers and reporting guideline developers.
STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology checklists for observational study designs (cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies) are freely available.
Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research: consists of 21 items grouped into five main domains: introduction, methods and methodology, literature search and selection, appraisal, and synthesis of findings. See Results for domains.
Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE). These guidelines provide a framework for reporting new knowledge about how to improve healthcare, and are intended for reports that describe system level work to improve the quality, safety, and value of healthcare, and used methods to establish that observed outcomes were due to the intervention(s). Guidelines are broken down by manuscript sections.
Provides guidelines for reporting randomized trials. Information include a checklist and flowchart. 25-item checklist provides information on reporting how the trial was designed, analyzed, and interpreted. Flowchart templates are available in Word or pdf. Criteria for reporting progress through the phases of a parallel randomised trial of two groups (that is, enrollment, intervention allocation, follow-up, and data analysis).
Website provides reporting criteria for the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Documents include a checklist, flowchart, statement, and explanation.
Organized by manuscript section and topic, this Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist helps authors standardize the reporting of systemic reviews and meta-analysis.
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses diagram illustrates the flow of information; mapping the number of records identified, included and excluded, and the reasons for exclusions. Different templates are available depending on the type of review (new or updated) and sources used to identify studies.
