Ten years of improvement in the standard of randomised controlled clinical trials in four international journals.
One hundred reports of randomised controlled clinical trials in BMJ, Lancet, N Engl J Med, and Br J Surg in 1996 were compared with 100 reports published worldwide in 1979 to 1984 in terms of design and conduct, analysis, and presentation. In all these respects the recently published trials were significantly better than those of 12 to 17 years ago. There is, however, room for further improvement.
Pollock
A V
AV
Department of Surgery, Scarborough Hospital, North Yorkshire, UK.
D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*