Do reporting guidelines really work?

Yes! In medicine, guidelines for RCTs, systematic reviews, and non-randomized outcome studies have had a dramatic impact on the quality of evaluation studies.

The potential global impact of the CONSORT Statement is evidenced by the 100,000 visitors from 197 different countries to the CONSORT websitein 2011 alone, 1,200 citations of CONSORT in the six years after its publication, and endorsement of CONSORT by over 50% of core medical journals on Pubmed. 

The quality of research reports in medical journals has especially improved among journals that endorse the CONSORT Statement. Even when controlling for journal impact factor, journals that promote CONSORT in their “Instructions to Authors” demonstrate superior reporting of RCTs.

Such impact is a realisable goal for trials of social and psychological interventions, as most missing information in trials is readily available, but authors do not report this information adequately or consistently.