title: Guidelines for the correct conduct of clinical research in surgery.
abstract: Clinical research may be either epidemiological or experimental. Epidemiological (observational) research includes cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies and draws attention to associations, which may or may not denote cause and effect. Experimental research may be explanatory, the purpose of which is to advance our knowledge of physiological or pathological events; or it may be pragmatic, the purpose of which is to influence our treatment of patients. All these types of clinical research have their own rules, but underlying the detailed rules are the universal ones of telling the truth and doing no harm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Scarborough Hospital, United Kingdom. alan@meded.demon.co.uk
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Pollock
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*