Riaz A Agha1, Mimi R Borrelli2, Reem Farwana3, Kiron Koshy4, Alexander J Fowler5, Dennis P Orgill6. 1. Department of Plastic Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK. 2. Hagey Laboratory for Pediatric Regenerative Medicine, Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: mimi.r.borrelli@gmail.com. 3. University of Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham, UK. 4. Department of Plastic Surgery, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. 5. Critical Care and Perioperative Medicine Research Group, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, UK. 6. Division of Plastic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The PROCESS guidelines were published in 2016 to provide a structure for reporting surgical case series. The PROCESS guidelines have since been widely endorsed by a number of journals. The requirement to report compliance with each item outlined in the PROCESS statement has improved the reporting transparency of case series across a number of surgical specialties. Here, we undertook a new Delphi consensus exercise to update the PROCESS guidelines. METHODS: All members of the previous Delphi group were invited to participate. In addition, researchers, editors, and reviewers who have previously published or reviewed case series with the International Journal of Surgery were invited to collaborate. An online questionnaire was sent to participants asking them to rate their agreement with amendments to each of the 29 items. RESULTS: 140 experts were invited to participate, 56 people agreed to participate, and 45 (80%) recipients completed the survey. There was a high level of agreement amongst the expert group, and unanimous consensus was reached in the first round. All except three proposed items were accepted, and the original guidelines were modified accordingly. CONCLUSION: A modified and improved PROCESS checklist is presented, after a Delphi consensus exercise was completed.
INTRODUCTION: The PROCESS guidelines were published in 2016 to provide a structure for reporting surgical case series. The PROCESS guidelines have since been widely endorsed by a number of journals. The requirement to report compliance with each item outlined in the PROCESS statement has improved the reporting transparency of case series across a number of surgical specialties. Here, we undertook a new Delphi consensus exercise to update the PROCESS guidelines. METHODS: All members of the previous Delphi group were invited to participate. In addition, researchers, editors, and reviewers who have previously published or reviewed case series with the International Journal of Surgery were invited to collaborate. An online questionnaire was sent to participants asking them to rate their agreement with amendments to each of the 29 items. RESULTS: 140 experts were invited to participate, 56 people agreed to participate, and 45 (80%) recipients completed the survey. There was a high level of agreement amongst the expert group, and unanimous consensus was reached in the first round. All except three proposed items were accepted, and the original guidelines were modified accordingly. CONCLUSION: A modified and improved PROCESS checklist is presented, after a Delphi consensus exercise was completed.
Authors: Alan J Fowler; Michaeline Hebron; Kaluvu Balaraman; Wangke Shi; Alexander A Missner; Jonathan D Greenzaid; Timothy L Chiu; Clementina Ullman; Ethan Weatherdon; Val Duka; Yasar Torres-Yaghi; Fernando L Pagan; Xiaoguang Liu; Habtom Ressom; Jaeil Ahn; Christian Wolf; Charbel Moussa Journal: Hum Mol Genet Date: 2020-10-10 Impact factor: 6.150