Quality of reporting in abstracts of RCTs published in emergency medicine journals: a systematic survey of the literature suggests we can do better

Germini, Federico; Marcucci, Maura; Fedele, Marta; Galli, Maria Giulia; Heath, Tevin; Mbuagbaw, Lawrence; Salvatori, Valentina; Veronese, Giacomo; Worster, Andrew; Thabane, Lehana

doi:10.1136/emermed-2019-208629

Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…However, revision of journal requirements and author guidelines are likely to have driven some changes, for example, the requirement for IRB/Ethics Committee approval. It is notable, however, that the quality of reporting in abstracts of EM trials is not improved by the use of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials extension for abstracts 25…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of methodology and reporting of emergency medicine quantitative research over a 20-year period

et al. 2020

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ObjectiveWe aimed to determine trends over time in article origin, and article and methodology characteristics.MethodWe examined original research articles published every fifth year over a 20-year period (1997–2017) in six emergency medicine (EM) journals (Ann Emerg Med, Acad Emerg Med, Eur J Emerg Med, Emerg Med J, Am J Emerg Med, Emerg Med Australas). Explicit data extraction of 21 article characteristics was undertaken. These included regional contributions, specific article items and research methodology.Results2152 articles were included. Over the study period, the proportional contributions from the USA and the UK steadily fell while those from Australasia, Europe and ‘other’ countries increased (p<0.001). All specific article items increased (p<0.01). Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee approval and conflicts of interest were almost universal by 2017. There were substantial increases in the reporting of keywords and authorship contributions. The median (IQR) number of authors increased from 4 (2) in 1997 to 6 (3) in 2017 (p<0.001) and the proportion of female first authors increased from 24.3% to 34.2% (p<0.01). Multicentre and international collaborations, consecutive sampling, sample size calculations, inferential biostatistics and the reporting of CIs and p values all increased (p<0.001). There were decreases in the use of convenience sampling and blinding (p<0.001). The median (IQR) study sample size increased from 148 (470) to 349 (2225) (p<0.001).ConclusionTrends over time are apparent within the EM research literature. The dominance in contributions from the US and UK is being challenged. There is more reporting of research accountability and greater rigour in both research methodology and results presentation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of methodology and reporting of emergency medicine quantitative research over a 20-year period

et al. 2020

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“…One systematic review [58] and three studies have also explored journal endorsement of CONSORT [41,55,57], which we did not do. As stated previously, the time frame covered by our study is quite long, meaning that many of the journals are not published anymore, or the RCTs are only found in hard copy.…”

Section: Comparison With Other Studiesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Abstract adherence to CONSORT extensions has also been assessed for cardiology [50], ophthalmology [51], anaesthesiology [52], periodontal disease [42], orthodontics [43], migraine and headache [53], gerontology and geriatrics [54], emergency medicine [55], surgery [56], and pain management [57]. Not one of these speciality studies has found completeness of reporting for abstracts and mostly agree that there is poor reporting, low compliance, room for improvement, and interventions are needed.…”

Section: Comparison With Other Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multiyear systematic survey of the quality of reporting for randomised trials in dentistry, neurology and geriatrics published in journals of Spain and Latin America

Bachelet

Navarrete

Barrera-Riquelme

et al. 2021

BMC Med Res Methodol

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Background The Iberoamerican Cochrane Network is currently developing an extensive project to identify Spanish-language journals that publish original clinical research in Spain and Latin America. The project is called BADERI (Database of Iberoamerican Essays and Journal) and feeds the research articles, mainly randomised clinical trials (RCTs), into CENTRAL (Cochrane Collaboration Central Register of Controlled Trials). This study aims to assess the quality of reporting of RCTs published in Spanish and Latin American journals for three clinical fields and assess changes over time. Methods We did a systematic survey with time trend analysis of RCTs for dentistry, geriatrics, and neurology. These fields were chosen for pragmatic reasons as they had not yet been completed in BADERI. After screening RCTs from 1990 to 2018 for randomised or quasi-randomised clinical trials, we extracted data for 23 CONSORT items. The primary outcome was the total score of the 23 predefined CONSORT 2010 items for each RCT (score range from 0 to 34). The secondary outcome measure was the score for each one of these 23 items. Results A total of 392 articles from 1990 to 2018 were included as follows: dentistry (282), neurology (80), and geriatrics (30). We found that the overall compliance score for the CONSORT items included in this study for all 392 RCTs analysed was 12.6 on a scale with a maximum score of 34. With time, the quality of reporting improved slightly for all RCTs. None of the articles achieved the complete individual CONSORT item compliance score. The lowest overall compliance percentage was for item 10 (Randomisation implementation) and item 24 (Protocol registration), with a dismal 1% compliance across all included RCTs, regardless of country. Conclusions CONSORT compliance is very poor in the 392 analysed RCTs. The impact of the CONSORT statement on improving the completeness of RCT reporting in Latin America and Spain is not clear. Iberoamerican journals should become more involved in endorsing and enforcing adherence to the CONSORT guidelines.

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“…With the publication of CONSORT extension for abstract reporting (CONSORT-A), it was endorsed by the World Association of Medical Editors, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and the Council of Science Editors (Chhapola et al, 2018). Studies have been conducted based on CONSORT-A to evaluate the quality of abstract reporting in different areas and certain specialties (Germini et al, 2019;Faggion & Giannakopoulos, 2012;Chow et al, 2018;Fang et al, 2020;Gallo et al, 2020). However, these studies indicated that the reporting quality of RCT abstracts are consistently suboptimal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abstracts Reporting of Randomized Controlled Trials in Ten Highest-ranking Nursing Journals: Improvement in the Quality Since CONSORT Extension for Abstracts

Zhang

Ws²,

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: When evaluating randomized controlled trials(RCTs), nurses usually refer to the abstracts to make an initial assessment of the results and to determine whether a full-text review is required. Aims: To determine whether the publication of Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) for abstracts resulted in an improvement in the abstracts report of nursing RCTs. Methods: This research was a cross-sectional study. Web of Science was searched. 200 RCTs were randomly selected from ten high-impact nursing journals. CONSORT-A checklist was used to assess abstracts. Total score on checklists, comparison on total scores between two periods, and effect factors were analyzed. Results: Mean overall adherence across all abstracts was 8.85±2.18 which significantly improved with the time span. The most poorly reported items were ‘harms’, ‘outcomes in method’, and ‘method of blinding’ which appeared in 0, 8.5% and 16.5% of abstracts, respectively. Recent year of publication(P=0.014), Journal impact factor (P=0.000), multiple center trial (P=0.000), and structured abstract (P=0.008) were associated significantly with a high reporting quality. Conclusions: Although not defined all of abstracts in nursing area, our sample reflect the general trend that there was limited adherence to the CONSORT-A among abstracts in nursing literature. It is necessary to promote and actively apply the CONSORT-A guideline.

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Quality of reporting in abstracts of RCTs published in emergency medicine journals: a systematic survey of the literature suggests we can do better

Cited by 12 publications

References 19 publications

Evolution of methodology and reporting of emergency medicine quantitative research over a 20-year period

Evolution of methodology and reporting of emergency medicine quantitative research over a 20-year period

A multiyear systematic survey of the quality of reporting for randomised trials in dentistry, neurology and geriatrics published in journals of Spain and Latin America

Abstracts Reporting of Randomized Controlled Trials in Ten Highest-ranking Nursing Journals: Improvement in the Quality Since CONSORT Extension for Abstracts

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