What are Reporting Guidelines for Research?

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Conducting Research

Sindhuja A
Sep 12, 2025

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3 mins

What are Reporting Guidelines for Research?

Research findings should be reported in a systematic manner to ensure that the audience easily consumes them. And that’s where reporting guidelines are helpful.

What are Reporting Guidelines are Why are They Needed?

Reporting guidelines provide researchers with a checklist of all the information they need to include in their research reporting. Research guidelines help authors validate and present their findings systematically while ensuring ethical considerations are satisfied.

Various reporting guidelines are commonly used for different study designs, including case reports, systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, and animal research. This blog summarizes the important items of the most popular research reporting guideline checklists for your reference.

PRISMA Guidelines

PRISMA¹ stands for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis. It provides a 27-point checklist and an expanded checklist, outlining the detailed recommendations of all items. PRISMA primarily focuses on the following aspects:

The title should identify the study as a systematic review.
The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review should be explained.
The search strategy, selection process, data collection process, and synthesis methods must be covered.
The results should be presented in terms of individual studies, risk of bias, and certainty of evidence.

CONSORT Guidelines

For randomized controlled trials (RCTs), Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT)² is the preferred guideline. With a 30-point checklist, CONSORT needs you to provide the following:

A structured summary of the trial design and methods.
The trial registration details along with the protocol plan.
The scientific background and rationale of the study in addition to specific objectives when it comes to the benefits and harms of the trial.
Describe the trial design, trial setting, participant details, sample size, and key results.

STROBE Guidelines

Primarily initiated by epidemiologists, methodologists, and statisticians, STROBE³ is aimed at Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology. It has a 22-point checklist for cohort, cross-sectional, and case-control studies.

The title should clearly identify the study design (e.g., cross-sectional, cohort, or case-control).
The Introduction should highlight the study background, rationale, and objectives.
Provide the details of the study setting, participant information, data sources, quantitative variables, and measurement methods.
Include the descriptive results, numerical outcomes, and other main findings.
Discuss the study limitations and interpret the results considering objectives, multiplicity of analyses, results from similar studies, and any other relevant evidence.

CARE Guidelines

CARE⁴ guidelines include a 13-item checklist for enhancing the accuracy, usefulness, and transparency of Case Reports.

The title should mention the diagnosis or intervention of primary focus, followed by the words “case report.”
Include 2 to 5 keywords and provide an abstract that provides an overview of the case, including the main diagnosis, therapeutic interventions, important clinical findings, and a “take-home” message.
Summarize why the case is unique in 2 to 3 paragraphs in the Introduction section.
Describe the patient information, timeline of the study, clinical findings, diagnostic assessment, therapeutic intervention, and follow-ups conducted.
Discuss the outcomes and identify limitations with respect to relevant medical literature.

ARRIVE Guidelines

The ARRIVE⁵ guidelines outline the recommendations for Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments. The checklist is divided into the Essential 10 Set, which describes the basic minimum information to be included in the manuscript, and the Recommended Set, which compliments the Essential 10 Set.

The Essential 10 Set needs you to provide the details of the study design, sample size, inclusion and exclusion criteria, randomization, blinding, outcome measures, statistical methods, experimental animals, experimental procedures, and results.
The Recommended Set outlines the specifics regarding how the study should be presented, such as the abstract, background, objectives, ethical considerations, animal care and monitoring, scientific implications, and protocol registration.

MOOSE Guidelines

MOOSE⁶ stands for Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology and includes a short 6-point checklist for authors, editors, and reviewers.

The reporting criteria include the reporting of background, search strategy, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions.
Mention whether the sub-categories under each of the above categories are covered in your study with a simple Yes/No answer.
Specify the relevant page number in the third column and upload the checklist as a separate document during submission.

STARD Guidelines

The Standards for Reporting Diagnostic accuracy (STARD)⁷ provides a 30-item checklist that outlines the reporting requirements of diagnostic accuracy studies.

The abstract should be a structured summary of study design, methods, results, and conclusions,
Mention the eligibility criteria of study participants and clarify how they were selected (e.g., based on symptoms or results from previous tests).
Describe the test methods used and provide the details of the analysis performed.
The results should include a flow diagram of how the participants were studied.

TREND Guidelines

The TREND⁸ guidelines were formulated to achieve Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomized Designs. This 22-point checklist outlines various aspects of the study to be included during reporting:

The eligibility criteria of participants, method of recruitment, and recruitment setting.
Details of the interventions used for the study design and how they were administered.
Methods used for data collection and the techniques used to enhance the quality of measurements.
A flow diagram indicating the flow of participants through each stage of the study: enrollment, assignment, allocation, and intervention exposure, follow-up, and analysis.
Information on the baseline data, baseline equivalence, numbers analyzed, outcomes, and estimation.

Summary

Most of the reporting guidelines can be found on the EQUATOR Network⁹. Here’s a table summarizing the guidelines that are required for several types of studies with the highlights of the checklist.

Guideline	Study Type	Checklist Highlights
PRISMA	Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses	27 items; structured reporting
CONSORT	Randomized controlled trials	30 items; participant flow diagram
STROBE	Observational studies	22 items with design-specific guidance
CARE	Case reports	Full documentation of case, timeline, and outcomes
ARRIVE	Animal research	Comprehensive study design and ethical reporting
MOOSE	Observational meta-analyses	Full reporting of search, analysis, and synthesis
STARD	Diagnostic accuracy	30 items; study identification to results
TREND	Non-randomized interventions	22 items; design and outcomes clarity