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Examining the effectiveness of research reporting guidelines


July 9, 2014

Dr. David Moher has published a study in The British Medical Journal that calls into question the widespread endorsements given to various research reporting guidelines. Dr. Moher and his team conducted a systematic review of more than 100 guidelines used by researchers when reporting their findings. The goal was to see how many of the reporting guidelines had been evaluated to prove their effectiveness. Of the more than 100 reporting guidelines examined, less than 20 per cent had been evaluated. This review has important implications for research institutes that are striving to improve the reporting of research. While endorsement and implementation of reporting guidelines is important, more caution in which guidelines are endorsed and implemented is needed until more widespread evaluations have been completed. Read the study.

About the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and is an affiliated institute of the University of Ottawa, closely associated with the university’s Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. OHRI includes more than 1,700 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease.

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