title: The Single-Case Reporting Guideline In Behavioural Interventions (SCRIBE) 2016 statement
abstract: We developed a reporting guideline to provide authors with guidance about what should be reported when writing a paper for publication in a scientific journal using a particular type of research design: the single-case experimental design. This report describes the methods used to develop the Single-Case Reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) 2016. As a result of 2 online surveys and a 2-day meeting of experts, the SCRIBE 2016 checklist was developed, which is a set of 26 items that authors need to address when writing about single-case research. This article complements the more detailed SCRIBE 2016 Explanation and Elaboration article (Tate et al., 2016) that provides a rationale for each of the items and examples of adequate reporting from the literature. Both these resources will assist authors to prepare reports of single-case research with clarity, completeness, accuracy, and transparency. They will also provide journal reviewers and editors with a practical checklist against which such reports may be critically evaluated. We recommend that the SCRIBE 2016 is used by authors preparing manuscripts describing single-case research for publication, as well as journal reviewers and editors who are evaluating such manuscripts.Reporting guidelines, such as the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) Statement, improve the reporting of research in the medical literature (Turner et al., 2012). Many such guidelines exist and the CONSORT Extension to Nonpharmacological Trials (Boutron et al., 2008) provides suitable guidance for reporting between-groups intervention studies in the behavioral sciences. The CONSORT Extension for N-of-1 Trials (CENT 2015) was developed for multiple crossover trials with single individuals in the medical sciences (Shamseer et al., 2015; Vohra et al., 2015), but there is no reporting guideline in the CONSORT tradition for single-case research used in the behavioral sciences. We developed the Single-Case Reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) 2016 to meet this need. This Statement article describes the methodology of the development of the SCRIBE 2016, along with the outcome of 2 Delphi surveys and a consensus meeting of experts. We present the resulting 26-item SCRIBE 2016 checklist. The article complements the more detailed SCRIBE 2016 Explanation and Elaboration article (Tate et al., 2016) that provides a rationale for each of the items and examples of adequate reporting from the literature. Both these resources will assist authors to prepare reports of single-case research with clarity, completeness, accuracy, and transparency. They will also provide journal reviewers and editors with a practical checklist against which such reports may be critically evaluated.
authors.forename: Robyn L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Tate
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perdices
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rosenkoetter
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shadish
authors.forename: Sunita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vohra
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Barlow
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Horner
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kazdin
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kratochwill
authors.forename: Skye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shamseer
authors.forename: Leanne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Togher
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Albin
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Backman
authors.forename: Jacinta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.forename: Jonathan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gast
authors.forename: Rumen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Manolov
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Lyndsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nickels
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nikles
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ownsworth
authors.forename: Miranda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Christopher H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy; D057189:Checklist; D032921:Consensus; D003697:Delphi Technique; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000592:standards; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards*; D012107:Research Design; D058028:Research Report / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Methodology; Publication standards; Reporting guidelines; Single-case design