Background/Purpose: EQUATOR-related reporting guidelines such as CONSORT, STROBE, and PRISMA have been said to promote clearer reporting of methods and results of a research manuscript for editors, peer reviewers, and readers. Our objectives were to assess: a) if 5 iconic rheumatology-focused journals encourage the use of these guidelines, and b) if the reporting guidelines were used in published research manuscripts of these journals.

Methods: This was an audit-type cross-sectional study of the journal’s instructions for authors and all original research manuscripts published in the 2019 printed versions of Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (Ann Rheum Dis), Arthritis and Rheumatology (Arthritis Rheumatol), Arthritis Care and Research (Arthritis Care Res), Rheumatology, and Journal of Rheumatology (J Rheumatol).

The titles of research articles (no editorials, reviews, letters) were selected from the table of contents of each number. The full articles were then downloaded as PDF files using an institutional account. After corroborating that they were research articles, each PDF file was checked to assess whether the reporting guidelines were used, as per the appearance of keywords EQUATOR, CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, MOOSE, SPIRIT, STARD, TRIPOD, CARE, STREGA, and ARRIVE. Descriptive statistics were used.

Results: Four of the five assessed journals encouraged reporting guidelines in their instructions for authors’ information.

There were 899 selected and then reviewed manuscripts from the five journals: 176 (19%) from Ann Rheum Dis, 190 (21%) from Arthritis Rheumatol, 170 (19%) from Arthritis Care Res, 213 (24%) from Rheumatology, and 150 (17%) J Rheumatol.

Overall, reporting guidelines were used in 29 (3.2%) manuscripts: 9 CONSORT, 8 PRISMA, 7 STROBE, 2 SPIRIT, 2 ARRIVE, and 1 TRIPOD. These figures preclude association assessments.

Conclusion: The scarce use of reporting guidelines seems counterintuitive, considering they are intended to help authors report all relevant information, are free to use, easily accessible, customized for different study designs, and promoted by journals. Whether this is due to issues with the diffusion, awareness, acceptance, or perceived usefulness of the guidelines remains to be elucidated.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/where-are-the-reporting-guidelines-in-rheumatology-an-analysis-of-their-use-in-over-850-published-manuscripts/