Key guidelines for reporting health research studies Presented by: Doug Altman John Hoey Ana Marusic Kenneth Schulz Iveta Simera The EQUATOR Network workshop 10 October 2012, Freiburg, Germany L&G Today is a very important day for the EQUATOR Network and we are all really pleased to see so many of you here. When we started discussion the programme of this meeting many months ago, my talk was the simplest and quickest to decide. I am a project manager of the EQUATOR , I’ll talk about the EQUATOR Network. I have realised when I started preparing this talk that I spent those months intensively marketing the EQUATOR, promoting its mission, goals and plans. Most of you have been on our website so you already have a pretty good understanding of the project.

How I can improve reporting of my research study Find out about reporting requirements early, when planning your research study When writing up your research, check the EQUATOR website for any new relevant guidelines to help improve the quality of your manuscript Adhere to the relevant reporting guideline(s) See ‘Steps to consider’ in Simera et al. BMC Medicine 2010,8:24

How I can improve reporting of my research study When not reporting on certain items explain why Remember that reporting guidelines provide a minimum set of items Other details specific to your particular study (consider in particular items that might have introduced bias into your research) It is important to provide enough information to allow your study to be potentially reproducible by others. See ‘Steps to consider’ in Simera et al. BMC Medicine 2010,8:24