Importance and use of guidelines to report main types of studies in medical research

Abstract

Medical care must be supported by research that meets reliable, valid, ethical, and reproducible principles. However, an essential fraction of research carried out in the medical field is inadequately reported due to omitting relevant information when it is published. This reduces their impact and the possibility that other researchers can realize critical appraisal, thereby compromising their application within medical practice. Because of this, guidelines have been developed to reduce this problem; their purpose is to increase research reports’ methodological quality, transparency, validity, and reliability. Despite their importance, incorporating these guidelines in various journals and the knowledge and use by a significant part of the medical community is limited. In this context, this article aims to synthesize the main guidelines for reporting research in medicine.