CONSORT your submissions: an update for authors

Abstract

Over a year ago Cox and Williams signed up the BJD to the CONSORT statement.1 The acronym CONSORT is derived from Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials and it describes a uniform presentation aimed at improving the reporting of randomized controlled trials, enabling readers to understand the trial's conduct and assess the validity of its results. This is an evolving process and has been greatly revised and enhanced in the last year.2 The checklist (Table 1) has been made more user‐friendly and explicit, indicating the relevant paper section, a column to state on which page the item is covered and an improved flow of information. The update is supported by an excellent website3 that includes the checklist, which will also be available from the editorial office. On the CONSORT website every item in the checklist is explained in detail with examples, and all terminology such as ‘intention to treat’ is defined. Those interested in meta‐analysis as editor, reviewer or author will also find ‘MOOSE’ and ‘QUORUM’ helpful. MOOSE is a proposed checklist for meta‐analysis of observational studies and QUORUM for meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. The table does not indicate the need for a structured abstract, which was an item on the previous statement. This is part of our uniform requirements and there is evidence that structured abstracts are of higher quality and assist readers in finding information, so please continue to structure abstracts for all original papers.

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