Methodology and reporting quality of reporting guidelines: systematic review

BMC Medical Research Methodology

Kehu Yang²  Gen Chen³  Dang Wei²  Liang Yao²  Nan Li⁴  Qi Wang²  Wei Deng⁴  Nan Yang¹  Yaolong Chen²  Xiaoqin Wang³ 

[1] The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;Chinese GRADE Center, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;Institute of Pathogenic Biology of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;The Second Affiliated Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

关键词: Reporting guideline;    Reporting quality;    Methodology quality;    Systematic review;   

Others  :  1228241
DOI  :  10.1186/s12874-015-0069-z

 received in 2015-04-17, accepted in 2015-09-17,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

With increasing attention put on the methodology of reporting guidelines, Moher et al. conducted a review of reporting guidelines up to December 2009. Information gaps appeared on many aspects. Therefore, in 2010, the Guidance for Developers of Health Research Reporting Guidelines was developed. With more than four years passed and a considerable investment was put into reporting guideline development, a large number of new, updated, and expanded reporting guidelines have become available since January 2010. We aimed to systematically review the reporting guidelines published since January 2010, and investigate the application of the Guidance.

Methods

We systematically searched databases including the Cochrane Methodology Register, MEDLINE, and EMBASE, and retrieved EQUATOR and the website (if available) to find reporting guidelines as well as their accompanying documents. We screened the titles and abstracts resulting from searches and extracted data. We focused on the methodology and reporting of the included guidelines, and described information with a series of tables and narrative summaries. Data were summarized descriptively using frequencies, proportions, and medians as appropriate.

Results

Twenty-eight and 32 reporting guidelines were retrieved from databases and EQUATOR network, respectively. Reporting guidelines were designed for a broad spectrum of types of research. A considerable number of reporting guidelines were published and updated in recent years. Methods of initial items were given in 45 (75 %) guidelines. Thirty-eight (63 %) guidelines reported they have reached consensus, and 35 (58 %) described their consensus methods. Only 9 (15 %) guidelines followed the Guidance.

Conclusions

Only few guidelines were developed complying with the Guidance. More attention should be paid to the quality of reporting guidelines.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Wang et al.

【 图 表 】

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