Journals publish new guidance to improve trial reports

New guidelines to improve the reporting of trial findings — which have been found to be “well below an acceptable level” — were published last week by the British Medical Journal and eight other journals from around the world.

The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement for 2010 improves the specificity and clarity of the previous checklist while also adding new items to make it easier for decision makers to judge the soundness of trial results.

CONSORT was originally published in 1996 and revised in 2001. Its contents include a checklist to help authors write reports of randomized controlled trials so that others can judge the reliability and validity of the results.

Reportedly, more than 400 journals and three editorial groups across the globe have given their official support to CONSORT.

“In the future we will further revise the CONSORT material considering comments, criticisms, experiences, and accumulating new evidence,” Kenneth F. Schulz, PhD, MBA, vice president of Family Health International, said in a release. “We invite readers to submit recommendations.”

The British Medical Journal also published a study in which the quality of trial reporting was found to have improved since the 2001 publication of the CONSORT revision but still fell “well below an acceptable level.”

Moher D. BMJ. 2010;340:869.

Schulz KF. BMJ. 2010;340:332.