OBJECTIVE: A recent applicability study highlighted the need for the existing checklist for reporting research using a simulated patient methodology (CRiSP) to be clearer and user-friendly. The aim of this study was to update the checklist to address these concerns.
METHODS: A fourth round of the Delphi consensus study, used in the original checklist development work, was conducted. Previous participants, who had expertise in SP methodology, were invited to complete a questionnaire including a list of 13 checklist items developed in the previous study and revised following applicability testing. Closed questions were analysed for frequency. Consensus was predefined as >80% agreement. All items were discussed in a roundtable meeting and further modified as necessary. Responses to open questions were content analysed.
RESULTS: Twenty-one authors participated. There was a statistical consensus in 12 out of 13 modified checklist items.
CONCLUSIONS: A final reporting checklist for studies in health research using SP methodology has been developed using a consensus approach. Further refinements may be needed to increase the generalizability of the checklist in different contexts.

Transparent reporting of nutrition research promotes rigor, reproducibility, and relevance to human nutrition. We performed a scoping review of recent articles reporting dietary folate interventions in mice as a case study to determine the reporting frequency of generic study design items (i.e., sex, strain, and age) and nutrition-specific items (i.e., base diet composition, intervention doses, duration, and exposure verification) in basic nutrition research. We identified 798 original research articles in the EMBASE, Medline, Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA), Global Health, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) databases published between January 2009 and July 2021 in which a dietary folic acid (FA) intervention was used in mice. We identified 312 original peer-reviewed articles including 191 studies in nonpregnant and 126 in pregnant mice. Most studies reported sex (99%), strain (99%), and age (83%). The majority of studies used C57BL/6 (53%) or BALB/c (11%) mice aged 3-9 wk. Nonpregnancy studies were more likely to use only male mice (57%). Dietary FA interventions varied considerably and overlapped: deficiency (0-3 mg/kg), control (0-16 mg/kg), and supplemented (0-50 mg/kg). Only 63% of studies used an open-formula base diet with a declared FA content and 60% of studies verified FA exposure using folate status biomarkers. The duration of intervention ranged from 1 to 104 wk for nonpregnancy studies. The duration of intervention for pregnancy studies was 1-19 wk, occurring variably before pregnancy and/or during pregnancy and/or lactation. Overall, 17% of studies did not report ≥1 generic study design item(s) and 40% did not report ≥1 nutrition-specific study design item(s). The variability and frequent lack of reporting of important generic and nutrition-specific study design details in nutrition studies limit their generalizability, reproducibility, and interpretation. The use of reporting checklists for animal research would enhance reporting quality of key study design and conduct factors in animal-based nutrition research.

Transparent reporting of nutrition research promotes rigor, reproducibility, and relevance to human nutrition. We performed a scoping review of recent articles reporting dietary folate interventions in mice as a case study to determine the reporting frequency of generic study design items (i.e., sex, strain, and age) and nutrition-specific items (i.e., base diet composition, intervention doses, duration, and exposure verification) in basic nutrition research. We identified 798 original research articles in the EMBASE, Medline, Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA), Global Health, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) databases published between January 2009 and July 2021 in which a dietary folic acid (FA) intervention was used in mice. We identified 312 original peer-reviewed articles including 191 studies in nonpregnant and 126 in pregnant mice. Most studies reported sex (99%), strain (99%), and age (83%). The majority of studies used C57BL/6 (53%) or BALB/c (11%) mice aged 3-9 wk. Nonpregnancy studies were more likely to use only male mice (57%). Dietary FA interventions varied considerably and overlapped: deficiency (0-3 mg/kg), control (0-16 mg/kg), and supplemented (0-50 mg/kg). Only 63% of studies used an open-formula base diet with a declared FA content and 60% of studies verified FA exposure using folate status biomarkers. The duration of intervention ranged from 1 to 104 wk for nonpregnancy studies. The duration of intervention for pregnancy studies was 1-19 wk, occurring variably before pregnancy and/or during pregnancy and/or lactation. Overall, 17% of studies did not report ≥1 generic study design item(s) and 40% did not report ≥1 nutrition-specific study design item(s). The variability and frequent lack of reporting of important generic and nutrition-specific study design details in nutrition studies limit their generalizability, reproducibility, and interpretation. The use of reporting checklists for animal research would enhance reporting quality of key study design and conduct factors in animal-based nutrition research.

UNASSIGNED: Standardized and transparent reporting of surgical technique is the cornerstone of effective dissemination, implementation and improvement. However, current reporting of surgical techniques is inadequate. The existing guidelines potentially applied to guide surgical technique reporting are with a minimal highlight of the surgical technique, lack requirements explaining what extent and dimensions need to be described in detail, or are unlikely to extrapolate to a wide range of surgical techniques. This study aims to formulate a rigorous protocol to develop a surgical technique reporting checklist and standards (SUPER) that defines what a clear, comprehensive and detailed surgical technique report should be contained.
UNASSIGNED: This protocol is designed following the classic guidance for developing reporting guidelines recommended by the EQUATOR network.
UNASSIGNED: The development team will consist of surgeons (~80%), methodologists, and journal editors. The draft checklist sources will include a scoping review of existing reporting guidelines related to surgical technique, surgical technique articles from 15 top journals published in the last year, and brainstorming by the multidisciplinary development team. The final SUPER checklist will be formed after three rounds of Delphi surveys, one round of face-to-face meeting, and a month-long pilot test. The SUPER checklist will be published as open-access and be used in combination with existing reporting guidelines related to surgical techniques (e.g., IDEAL). This protocol will steer the SUPER checklist\'s development, allowing us to further elaborate surgical technique reporting for all surgical specialties, and enabling a more favorable experience for surgeons, nurses, medical students, residents, editors, and reviewers.
UNASSIGNED: This trial is registered at the EQUATOR network on December 18th, 2020. Available at: https://www.equator-network.org/library/reporting-guidelines-under-development/reporting-guidelines-under-development-for-other-study-designs/.

OBJECTIVE: Simulated patients are increasingly used to measure outcomes in health services but reporting is suboptimal. This study aims to create a checklist for the reporting of simulated patient (SP) methodology.
METHODS: This was a Delphi study. The authors of health service research studies using SP methodology were invited to participate. Round 1 questionnaire assessed the applicability of the TIDieR (Template for Intervention Description and Replication) reporting checklist for SP methodology and asked for rewording of/additional items. Responses were thematically analysed to generate Round 2 items in which participants rated each item for importance (seven-point Likert scale) and median, mode and IQR were calculated. In Round 3, participants were invited to rescore their Round 2 responses. Consensus was defined as an IQR ≤ 1 (Extremely important) and median ≤ 2 (Very important). All consensus items were considered for inclusion in the checklist. Similarly, worded items were rationalised and items not specific to SP methodology or other existing checklists were excluded.
RESULTS: Twenty-nine authors participated in Round 1 and a further seven for Rounds 2 and 3. Twenty-six responses were analysed for Round 1, 30 for Round 2 and 28 for Round 3. There was consensus on 29 of 54 items in Round 2 and 45 of 63 items in Round 3. The final checklist comprised 28 items.
CONCLUSIONS: A new reporting checklist to guide the reporting of studies, using simulated patients, complementary to CONSORT or STROBE, has been developed and will now be tested for usability.