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Description
Oral Health Statistical Reporting Guidelines: A webinar for editors, peer-reviewers and authors
A way to improve your research dissemination and reporting
This webinar, hosted by IADR and the Journal of Dental Research, coincides with the release of new oral health statistical reporting guidelines that will be published simultaneously in 6 journals in the field. The guidelines cover clinical trials and epidemiological studies and include items on designs that are common in oral health studies such as split-mouth studies and the effects of natural changes in the dentition. By using these guidelines and the associated checklist, authors , peer reviewers and editors will be able to identify and avoid common mistakes in reporting of statistics and other design issues in oral health research. The webinar brings together journal editors and authors of the new guidelines to explain the key aspects of the guidance and how they apply in different areas of oral health. There will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please join us to find out more!
Additional Q&A to that recorded:
What do you think of studies with secondary data, that is, those that use previously collected databases? Are there special considerations for this?
Many aspects of the guidelines will be relevant to secondary data analysis. However, some items may be addressed simply by referencing information from other sources that describe the data collection.
These guidelines are very important and need to be shared with dental education and advanced dental education programs. What are the key ways that they differ from STROBE, CONSORT, etc.?
They include guidance on factors that are unique to oral health studies, e.g. units of observation (checklist #16). They also present a single checklist that can be used for clinical trails or observational studies.
Are these guidelines mainly about reporting or methodology?
The checklist is for reporting, but we recommend consulting the checklist at the study design stage.
Many of the research grant funds in the UK emphasize the use of PPIE to consult on research questions and design. Loads of fund is now invested in this valuable stage of the research. Would be considered to be included in the future, otherwise it may loose it’s value.
Just to be clear, PPIE means ‘patient participation, involvement and engagement’. It is certainly strongly encouraged to involve people with lived experience in research, particularly studies that are patient focused. It is a good suggestion to include information on reporting PPIE in checklists such as OHStat in future, although it is important that the checklist does not become too long and unwieldy. For a more comprehensive checklist on PPIE, please see GRIPP2 (Staniszewska et al., 2017, BMJ 358:j3453).
Is it possible for different oral health disciplines, IADR, or journals to have a list of biostatisticians who are willing to be resources (paid or unpaid), especially for researchers at locations that do not have a biostatistician on staff?
I suspect it would be difficult to maintain a list like this, but you could try reaching out to the IADR Clinical and Translational Science Network.
Can all you amazing people make a statistics course online? to guide authors on which tests to use
Thanks for the suggestion! As discussed in the webinar, there are existing online resources but a full understanding of the issues requires extensive training. We recommend consulting a professional statistician for assistance with planning and analyzing complex studies.
Is the rate of acceptance of papers decreased with the introduction of guidelines?
We hope it will be the opposite as the guidelines should help authors to get things right!
Is there a study about the impact of guidelines on quality publications?
It is difficult to pinpoint the specific impact of guidelines. Studies have looked at adherence to guidelines in different fields, which gives some idea of quality. This paper showed that there have been improvements in the design, conduct and reporting of papers in oral health over the timeframe of CONSORT, but that there are still many problems: Pandis et al. (2020) J Dent Res 100(3):245-252.