What are reporting guidelines?

A reporting guideline is a set of recommendations designed to help authors write papers.  Guidelines draw attention to information that is important for understanding a type of research method. Reporting guidelines do not tell you how to conduct your research, but facilitate the writing and appraisal of reports.

Dozens of reporting guidelineshave been developed over the last 15 years for different types of research. The original CONSORT Statement provides an evidence-based, standardised set of 25 recommendations for authors to prepare reports of ‘standard’ two-group, parallel RCTs.  The CONSORT Group has also extended this guidance to other types of RCTs that are distinct in trial design, type of intervention examined, and data collected.