EQUATOR Network will organise two events at the Peer Review Congress, Chicago 2013:

• Workshop for journal editors and peer reviewers
• EQUATOR 5th Annual Lecture

Both events are independent from the Peer Review Congress and anyone may attend.

If you want to attend the workshop you need to register and pay registration fee.

The Annual Lecture is free and you do not need to register to attend.

EQUATOR Workshop

Reporting guidelines: a tool to increase the quality of health research published in your journal

Date: Saturday 7 September 2013, 9.30 – 12.30

Venue: Swissotel, Chicago, USA (Peer Review Congress venue)
Target audience: Editors and peer reviewers of medical research journals

Workshop outline:

Substantial evidence continues to demonstrate widespread, serious deficiencies in the reporting of health research studies. There is a considerable waste of financial and human resources.
Journal editors play an important role in the dissemination of research findings and have power to considerably improve the reporting quality of research papers they publish. Some journals are already leading the way but all journals need to act in accord to raise reporting quality across all clinical areas.

Presenters include:

Prof Doug Altman, Dr David Moher, Dr Jason Roberts, and Dr Iveta Simera

During the workshop we will:

• Highlight major deficiencies in health research publications
• Give an overview of available reporting guidelines to aid the completeness and transparency of research papers (CONSORT; PRISMA; STROBE)
• Discuss practical aspects of implementation of these guidelines in journals.
• Introduce the EQUATOR Network resources and show how authors, editors, and peer reviewers can help to improve health research reporting.

Learning objectives:

1. Understand the importance of transparency and accuracy in reporting health research and be familiar with common deficiencies in reporting of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and observational studies
2. Understand the key concepts of reporting guidelines and their efficient use by different professional groups with the main focus on editors and peer reviewers
3. Learn about the main elements of three major reporting guidelines: CONSORT Statement (reporting RCTs); the PRISMA Statement (reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses evaluating healthcare interventions) and STROBE (reporting epidemiological studies)
4. Understand and efficiently use the EQUATOR Network internet-based resource centre and training programme
5. Discuss implementation of reporting guidelines in health research journals (instructions to authors, editorial and review processes, authors’ compliance, etc.)

Contact:
Dr Iveta Simera, iveta.simera@csm.ox.ac.uk

5th EQUATOR Annual Lecture will be presented by Professor Kay Dickersin, Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Director of the Center for Clinical Trials, and Director of the US Cochrane Center (USCC).

Date: Monday 9 September 2013, 18:00 – 19:00
Venue: Swissotel, Chicago, USA (Peer Review Congress venue)

The lecture is free, no need to register.

Lecture outline: will be added soonon the EQUATOR website.

Short biography:

KAY DICKERSIN, M.A., Ph. D. is Director of the U.S. Cochrane Center and Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she serves as the Director of the Center for Clinical Trials.

Kay’s main research contributions have been in clinical trials, systematic reviews, reporting biases, trials registers, and the development and utilization of methods for the evaluation of health care and its effectiveness. She has led and participated in research on reporting biases since the 1980s, most recently examining internal company documents related to the drug gabapentin and comparing the documents to the published record. She has been active in efforts to register trials, including coordination for 12 years of the Cochrane Collaboration’s CENTRAL register of reports of controlled trials, and serving as Co-Chair of the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Kay has contributed to SPIRIT, PRISMA, and CONSORT for Abstracts. She has also been actively engaged in teaching, including developing courses on evidence-based healthcare, epidemiology, peer review, clinical trials and systematic reviews. Among her honors, Kay is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine in the United States.

Kay received a Master’s degree in zoology, specializing in cell biology, from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health.