Let medicine lead the way beyond the registration of clinical trials: registering hypotheses.
There has been much recent interest in improving the quality and reporting of clinical research. Major journals now require clinical trialists to register studies a priori and follow specific reporting guidelines. While best developed for randomized, controlled trials, guidelines for other study types are being developed. A hypothesis is presently available for 4 of 5 publications reporting randomized, controlled trials, much less common for other study designs and scarce in the general scientific literature. The declaration of a hypothesis or its absence should be a standard feature of all scientific reporting. The recording of the hypothesis in a registry before data collection would assure readers that the hypothesis was a priori. Medicine has been in the vanguard in requiring methodological rigor in the reporting of science and should again push the envelope by developing a hypothesis registry. If successful, the gauntlet would be thrown down for the rest of science.
Desbiens
Norman A
NA
Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee, College of Medicine-Chattanooga Unit, Chattanooga, TN 37403, USA. nadesbiens@gmail.com
D015510:Clinical Medicine; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards; D012042:Registries; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*