[Guidelines for research reports: an application of CONSORT 2010 statements].

INTRODUCTION: Reporting guidelines are not only useful for authors in compiling complete and transparent reports but they can use also be used by readers for the critical appraisal of the study. In this study, we apply the CONSORT 2010 reporting guideline to illustrate its value as the first step in the critical appraisal. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We have applied the checklist of the CONSORT 201 statement to the publication of Richter et al. [7]. This has been done by both authors independently. We report for each item of the 25 item checklist whether it was adequately reported, and we comment on each item.
RESULTS: The paper of Richter et al. does not comply with the CONSORT 2010 checklist and the CONSORT extension for summaries in all items.
CONCLUSION: The most important reporting guidelines are now available in German (https://www.thieme-connect.de/ejournals/toc/dmw/104011). They are useful for authors of research articles to compile complete and transparent reports. Readers can use items of these reporting guidelines for judging the quality of a published study. To this end, there is a need to distinguish between reporting quality and the quality of a specific study. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.