Interpreting Key Trials
Purpose: Interpreting Key Trials articles update physicians on important clinical trials that are changing the practice of medicine. They summarize the study's rationale, methods, and results. But more importantly, they put the trial into perspective, clarifying the key clinical take-home points and outlining ambiguities in results, unanswered questions, and controversies.
Style: The article should be written in plain language with a minimum of technical jargon and should highlight key points that general internists, hospitalists, and cardiologists can quickly incorporate into their practice.
Format: Articles should be about 2,500 words long (not counting references, tables, and figures), with about 30 key references. The abstract should be about 100 words long.
Content: Most articles for this series are organized in the same way; they begin with a discussion of the rationale for the study, followed by a summary of the study design, and then an overview of the important results. Most importantly, the article should then discuss the results in a nuanced way, emphasizing the important findings that may change clinical practice, but also the unanswered questions and controversies, and new questions that the study raises.
When discussing results of clinical studies, the absolute risk value and number needed to treat should be included whenever possible, rather than the relative risk and hazard ratio.
Authorship: Every person listed as an author must have contributed substantially to the paper according to the authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The criteria are as follows:
- Each author listed must have contributed to the conception or design of the paper, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
- Each author listed must have participated in drafting the paper or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Each author listed must have given final approval of the version to be published.
- Each author listed must have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the paper, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Example of an Interpreting Key Trials article.