A history of the evolution of guidelines for reporting medical research: the long road to the EQUATOR Network

Abstract

Testing medical treatments and other interventions aimed at improving people’s health is incredibly important. However, comparative studies need to be well designed, well conducted, appropriately analysed and responsibly interpreted. Sadly, not all available findings and ‘discoveries’ are based on reliable research. Our beliefs about best practices for medical research developed massively over the 20th century and ideas and methods continue to evolve. Much, perhaps most, medical research is done by individuals for whom it is not their main sphere of activity; notably, clinicians are expected to conduct some research early in their careers. As such, it is perhaps not surprising that there have been consistent comments on the poor quality of research and also recurrent attempts to raise understanding of how to do research well. More recently, and increasingly over the last 20 years, concerns about poor methodology1 have been augmented by growing concerns about the inadequacy of reporting in published journal articles.2