{"id":1702,"date":"2022-03-14T12:44:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T12:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjopen\/?p=1702"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:51:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T10:51:49","slug":"unique-opportunity-for-health-researchers-to-test-a-new-manuscript-writing-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjopen\/2022\/03\/14\/unique-opportunity-for-health-researchers-to-test-a-new-manuscript-writing-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique opportunity for health researchers to test a new manuscript writing aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At BMJ Open, we support initiatives to improve reporting and make life easier for authors who are writing up their research, which is why we are pleased to share this opportunity from The Equator Network to help shape a new writing aid.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Caroline Struthers, Senior EQUATOR Research Fellow, explains.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In 2018, the UK EQUATOR Centre at the University of Oxford created a new website – GoodReports.org \u2013 designed to help authors find and use reporting guidelines.\u00a0 Reporting guidelines such as CONSORT, STROBE, and PRISMA exist for all main study designs. They are intended to help researchers to include all the information needed for readers to understand and assess the quality of the research. We were delighted to partner with <\/span>BMJ Open<\/span><\/i> to explore the experience and behaviour of GoodReports users, and we<\/span> published the results<\/span><\/a> of this work last year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The data we collected suggested that reporting guidance would be more useful if it were delivered earlier in the writing process.\u00a0 Our data also showed that this guidance is less user-friendly when delivered in the standard common \u201cchecklist\u201d format. \u00a0 We are now trialling a way of providing reporting guidance to health researchers at an earlier stage in the writing process, and in a format that is designed to make following the guidance easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

New template trial<\/h5>\n

The GoodReports Randomized Trial (GRReaT) is comparing the completeness of reporting between a group who were given an article template containing items from the appropriate reporting guideline for their study design with a control group who were given a reporting guideline recommendation along with general reporting guidance<\/span><\/p>\n

We are looking for trial participants who will be writing up the following types of health-related study:<\/span><\/p>\n