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Editorial| Volume 78, ISSUE 1, P1-2, May 2014

The SPIRIT 2013 Statement

      Maturitas, alongside many other journals, aims to increase the transparency and trust in clinical research by promoting accurate and complete reporting of the results of clinical trials by recommending the use of reporting guidelines, in particular the CONSORT 2010 Statement for randomised clinical trials [
      • Schulz K.F.
      • Altman D.G.
      • Moher D.
      for the CONSORT Group
      CONSORT 2010 Statement: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials.
      ]. This enables the critical assessment of methodological quality, examination of possible biases and comparison of findings both beneficial and harmful across different studies. However these guidelines only address the transparency and clarity of reporting and not the actual conduct of the study and there is increasing evidence that clinical trials results are not being fully and accurately disclosed and that critical information regarding study methods and outcomes are frequently missing or incomplete [
      • Chan A.-W.
      • Hrobjartssom A.
      • Haahr M.T.
      • Gotzsche P.C.
      • Altman D.G.
      Empirical evidence for selective reporting of outcomes in randomised trials: comparison of protocol to published articles.
      ,
      • Mhasker R.
      • Djulbegovich B.
      • Magazin A.
      • Soares H.P.
      • Kumar A.
      Published methodological quality of randomized controlled trials does not reflect the actual quality assessed in protocols.
      ].
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      References

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        • Altman D.G.
        • Moher D.
        • for the CONSORT Group
        CONSORT 2010 Statement: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials.
        BMJ. 2010; 340 (PMID: 20332509): c332
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        Empirical evidence for selective reporting of outcomes in randomised trials: comparison of protocol to published articles.
        JAMA. 2004; 291: 2457-2465
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        Published methodological quality of randomized controlled trials does not reflect the actual quality assessed in protocols.
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        • Chan A.-W.
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