Equator Guidelines For Health Research

ANALYSIS AND CO MMENT ALTMAN ET AL
EQUATOR is an umbrella for all areas of health-

EQUATOR: research reporting. The network aims to become a
global centre that provides resources and training, and
reporting guidelines which assists in the development, dissemination, and
implementation of robust reporting guidelines.
for health research EQUATOR’s strategic plan reflects the needs of its ma-
jor stakeholders: developers of reporting guidelines,
researchers, journal editors, peer-reviewers, and re-
search-funding bodies.
Douglas G. Altman, Iveta Simera, One of the first activities was to identify existing
John Hoey, David Moher, Ken Schulz
reporting guidelines to see how they were developed.
The development methods of most guidelines were
broadly similar, but with wide variation in important
details. Development usually took a long time and only
half the groups had strategies for dissemination and
Affiliations: Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK (DGA, IS); Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont., Canada implementation of their guidelines. The difficulty of
(JH). Chalmers Research Group, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont., securing sufficient funding to develop, assess, and dis-
Canada (DM); Quantitative Sciences, Family Health International,
Durham, NC, USA (KS). seminate guidelines was widely acknowledged as a
major problem.
Competing interests: We are all involved in health-care initiatives
and research that should benefit from wide uptake of reporting The initial survey and discussions with the main
guidelines. stakeholders helped us to prioritise future activities.
First, we developed an internet-based resource centre,
Correspondence: iveta.simera@cancer.org.uk
which can be freely accessed on our website.13 At pre-
sent, it provides a collection of available reporting
This article was first published in The Lancet on 5 April 2008 and is guidelines. In the future, the website will also host other
reproduced here with permission. resources for authors of research articles, editors, peer-
reviewers, and developers of guidelines, including a
comprehensive digital library for health-research re-
D
ESPITE THE EFFORT OF RESEARCHERS, porting, guidance for the development of robust report-
editors and peer reviewers, the quality of ing guidelines, tools to facilitate their use, and
health-research reporting in journal articles educational materials.
is unsatisfactory.1–6 Guidelines that specify a minimum The availability of good reporting guidelines is not
set of items for reporting can improve the accuracy and sufficient for the improvement of the quality of report-
transparency of publications, thus facilitating easier ing. Our second priority will be active promotion of
and more reliable appraisal of quality and relevance. such guidelines and their use, by developing and run-
During the past 10 years several internationally re- ning training for editors, peer-reviewers, and authors.
spected guidelines for the reporting of health research The courses will concentrate on the important factors of
have been developed.7–10 However, those guidelines are research reporting and the efficient use of reporting
still not widely supported by medical journals11, 12 or guidelines.
adhered to by researchers, and thus their potential Poor reporting reflects a collective failure of those
impact is lessened. involved. Collaboration with and the support of influen-
To remedy this situation the UK National Knowledge tial medical journals are vital for the success of this
Service provided funding to start the EQUATOR project project. Benefits will be equally split between both
(Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health communities—users will benefit from improved reliabil-
Research). This initiative seeks to improve the reliability ity of scientific information and journals will benefit
of medical publications by promoting transparent and from increased loyalty of their readers attracted by
accurate reporting of health research. This movement improved accuracy and reliability of reports. The
grew out of the work of CONSORT9 and other groups. EQUATOR network will regularly monitor how journals
Open Medicine 2008;2(2):e24–25
ANALYSIS AND CO MMENT ALTMAN ET AL
5. Riley RD, Abrams KR, Sutton AJ, Lambert PC, Jones DR, Heney
D, et al. Reporting of prognostic markers: current problems and
development of guidelines for evidence-based practice in the fu-
ture. Br J Cancer 2003;88(8):1191–8. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
6. Smidt N, Rutjes AW, van der Windt DA, Ostelo RW, Reitsma JB,
Bossuyt PM, et al. Quality of reporting of diagnostic accuracy stud-
ies. Radiology 2005;235(2):347–53. [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Full
implement reporting guidelines. We will annually audit Text]
the quality of reporting across the health-research lit- 7. Bossuyt PM, Reitsma JB, Bruns DE, Gatsonis CA, Glasziou PP,
Irwig LM, et al. Towards complete and accurate reporting of stud-
erature and hope to document gradual improvements.
ies of diagnostic accuracy: the STARD initiative. Standards for Re-
Sufficient funding is a necessary requirement for the porting of Diagnostic Accuracy. Clin Chem 2003;49(1):1–6.
development and implementation of robust reporting [PubMed] [Full Text]
guidelines and widespread promotion of good reporting 8. Moher D, Cook DJ, Eastwood S, Olkin I, Rennie D, Stroup DF.
Improving the quality of reports of meta-analyses of randomised
of research. In view of how much money funding agen- controlled trials: the QUOROM statement. Quality of Reporting of
cies spend on health research, their lack of interest in Meta-analyses. Lancet 1999;354(9193):1896–900. [PubMed]
ensuring that this research is reported accurately is 9. Moher D, Schulz KF, Altman DG. The CONSORT statement:
revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of
deeply disappointing. Good reporting is not an optional
parallel-group randomised trials. Lancet 2001;357(9263):1191–4.
extra; it is an essential component of research. Funding [PubMed]
bodies should recognise this and support initiatives 10. von Elm E, Altman DG, Egger M, Pocock SJ, Gøtzsche PC, Van-
such as EQUATOR that aim to improve the current denbroucke JP, STROBE Initiative. The Strengthening the Report-
ing of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE)
situation. statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies. PLoS
The EQUATOR Network will hold its official launch Med 2007;4(10):e296. [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Full Text]
meeting on June 26, 2008, in London, UK. The meeting 11. Altman DG. Endorsement of the CONSORT statement by high
impact medical journals: survey of instructions for authors. BMJ
will focus on better understanding of problems associ-
2005;330(7499):1056–7. [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Full Text]
ated with health-research reporting and use of report-
12. Smidt N, Overbeke J, de Vet H, Bossuyt P. Endorsement of the
ing guidelines, and on finding potential solutions to STARD Statement by biomedical journals: survey of instructions
improve the health-research literature. for authors. Clin Chem 2007;53(11):1983–5. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
13. EQUATOR Network. Resource centre. 2007. Accessed 2007 Nov
29. [Full Text]
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1. Chan A, Altman DG. Epidemiology and reporting of randomised
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1159–62. [CrossRef] [PubMed] Citation: Altman DG, Simera I, Hoey J, Moher D, Schulz K.
EQUATOR: reporting guidelines for health research. Open Med
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DG. Systematic reviews of diagnostic tests in cancer: review of
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[PubMed] [Full Text] Copyright: This article is licenced under the Creative Commons
Attibution–ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License, which means that anyone
3. Mills E, Loke YK, Wu P, Montori VM, Perri D, Moher D, et al. is able to freely copy, download, reprint, reuse, distribute, display
Determining the reporting quality of RCTs in clinical pharmacol- or perform this work and that the authors retain copyright of their
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[Full Text] a license identical to this one and must be attributed to the
authors. Any of these conditions can be waived with permission
4. Pocock SJ, Collier TJ, Dandreo KJ, de Stavola BL, Goldman MB, from the copyright holder. These conditions do not negate or super-
Kalish LA, et al. Issues in the reporting of epidemiological studies: a sede Fair Use laws in any country. For further information see
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[PubMed] [Full Text]
Open Medicine 2008;2(2):e24–25

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ANALYSIS AND CO MMENT ALTMAN ET AL

EQUATOR is an umbrella for all areas of health-

Open Medicine 2008;2(2):e24–25

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