title: A systematic survey of the quality of research reporting in general orthopaedic journals.
abstract: The poor reporting and use of statistical methods in orthopaedic papers has been widely discussed by both clinicians and statisticians. A detailed review of research published in general orthopaedic journals was undertaken to assess the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting. A representative sample of 100 papers was assessed for compliance to CONSORT and STROBE guidelines and the quality of the statistical reporting was assessed using a validated questionnaire. Overall compliance with CONSORT and STROBE guidelines in our study was 59% and 58% respectively, with very few papers fulfilling all criteria. In 37% of papers patient numbers were inadequately reported; 20% of papers introduced new statistical methods in the 'results' section not previously reported in the 'methods' section, and 23% of papers reported no measurement of error with the main outcome measure. Taken together, these issues indicate a general lack of statistical rigour and are consistent with similar reviews undertaken in a number of other scientific and clinical research disciplines. It is imperative that the orthopaedic research community strives to improve the quality of reporting; a failure to do so could seriously limit the development of future research.
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Clifford Bridge Road, Coventry, CV2 2DX, UK. nick.parsons@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Parsons
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hiskens
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Achten
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000592:standards*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D009985:Orthopedics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards