title: Quality of reporting in infertility journals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether fertility and top gynecology journals indexed in PubMed require the use of reporting guidelines and to identify the percentage of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in 2013 that were written following CONSORT guidelines in the top four fertility journals (by their highest impact factor).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study evaluating instructions for authors and RCTs published in fertility journals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Academic institution.
  
  
  METHODS
  None.
  
  
  METHODS
  None.
  
  
  METHODS
  Proportion of instruction-for-authors documents that suggested or required the use of reporting guidelines, and proportion of RCTs published in 2013 that accomplished the CONSORT checklist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 47% (16/34) of the journals one or more reporting guidelines were mentioned in the instructions for authors' documents. PRISMA and CONSORT were the most commonly mentioned reporting guidelines. None of the analyzed RCTs completed the 25 items of CONSORT guideline. Sequence generation or allocation concealment was not described in 69% of the studies. One-third of the journals did not publish a flowchart, 72% did not show relative and absolute size-effect measures, and 42% did not use measures of imprecision. In the summaries, 42% did not discuss the limitations of the study and 78% did not mention the generalizability of the results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Less than half of the analyzed peer-reviewed journals request the authors to use reporting guidelines. Nevertheless, among the top fertility and gynecology journals, reporting guidelines are widely mentioned. Overall, accomplishment of CONSORT items was suboptimal. Editorial boards, reviewers, and authors should join efforts to improve the quality of reporting.
authors.affiliation: Cochrane South-American Branch, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Center for Studies in Genetics and Reproduction (CEGYR), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: glujovsky@cegyr.com.
authors.forename: Demian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Glujovsky
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies in Genetics and Reproduction (CEGYR), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boggino
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies in Genetics and Reproduction (CEGYR), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Riestra
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies in Genetics and Reproduction (CEGYR), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coscia
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies in Genetics and Reproduction (CEGYR), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: Carlos E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Sueldo
authors.affiliation: Cochrane South-American Branch, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Agustín
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciapponi
mesh_terms: D035081:Editorial Policies; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D006176:Gynecology / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007246:Infertility; D038622:Internationality; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D039781:PubMed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D018456:Reproductive Medicine / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014956:Writing / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Reporting quality; fertility journals; randomized controlled trials; reporting guidelines