Reporting guidelines are recommendations to help write up research clearly.
Your research will be used by people from different disciplines and backgrounds for decades to come. Reporting guidelines are community-created recommendations for describing what you did and what you found so that everyone can understand, repeat, apply, and synthesise your work. Although they recommend information to include in your manuscript, they don’t dictate how to order that information.
Most reporting guidelines consist of the full guidance (sometimes called an Explanation and Elaboration document) and a checklist. The full guidance provides detailed explanations and examples for each item, and the checklist allows you to demonstrate adherence to editors.
You can use reporting guidelines throughout your research process. However you use reporting guidelines, please cite them.
Writing manuscripts
Write confidently using a reporting guideline to quickly turn a blank page into a thorough and impactful manuscript.
Checking
Use a reporting checklist to demonstrate to an editor or peer reviewer that you have included everything. Many journals require completed checklists at submission.
Writing applications
Reporting guidelines can help you write funding applications, ethics applications, and protocols, but they won’t make design decisions for you!
Reporting guidelines are neither design nor quality appraisal tools.
Although reporting guidelines recommend information to include when writing up research, they do not mandate how to design research. Similarly, when reviewing literature, although you can use reporting guidelines to assess whether a manuscript is well reported, you cannot use them to appraise whether that study is well designed.
Key information
Reporting guideline acronym
SUPER
Provided for
Reporting of surgical technique.
Relevant URLs (full-text if available)
Read the full-text (PDF) of the SUPER reporting guideline.
PubMed ID
Downloads
Bibliographic reference
Commonly used reporting guidelines
| STROBE | Observational Studies |
| PRISMA | Systematic reviews of trials |
| PRISMA-P | Systematic review protocols |
| CONSORT | Randomised trials |
| SPIRIT | Randomised trial protocols |
| SRQR | Qualitative Research |
| CARE | Case Reports |
| STARD | Diagnostic studies |
| TRIPOD+AI | Prediction Models |
| ARRIVE | Animal Research |
| SQUIRE | Quality Improvement |
| CHEERS | Economic Evaluations |
| Search all |
Zhang K, Ma Y, Wu J, Shi Q, Barchi LC, Scarci M, Petersen RH, Ng CSH, Hochwald S, Waseda R, Davoli F, Fruscio R, Levi Sandri GB, Gonzalez M, Wei B, Piessen G, Shen J, Zhang X, Jiao P, He Y, Novoa NM, Bedetti B, Gilbert S, Sihoe ADL, Toker A, Fiorelli A, Jimenez MF, Lerut T, Oo AY, Li GS, Tang X, Lu Y, Elkhayat H, Štupnik T, Laisaar T, Abu Akar F, Gonzalez-Rivas D, Su Z, Qiu B, Wang SD, Chen Y, Gao S. The SUPER reporting guideline suggested for reporting of surgical technique. HepatoBiliary Surg Nutr 2023;12(4):534-544.
Additional information
Language
English
Availability in additional languages
Study design
- Clinical trials
- Experimental studies
- Observational studies
Clinical area
- Surgery
Applies to the whole report or to individual sections of the report?
- Intervention (exposure)
Reporting guideline website URL
Previous versions of this guideline / Guideline history
Other
Additional Information
The SUPER guideline development protocol is available at:
Zhang K, Ma Y, Shi Q, Wu J, Shen J, He Y, Zhang X, Jiao P, Li GS, Tang X, Petersen RH, Ng CSH, Fiorelli A, Novoa NM, Bedetti B, Levi Sandri GB, Hochwald S, Lerut T, Sihoe ADL, Barchi LC, Gilbert S, Waseda R, Toker A, Gonzalez-Rivas D, Fruscio R, Scarci M, Davoli F, Piessen G, Qiu B, Wang SD, Chen Y, Gao S. Developing the surgical technique reporting checklist and standards: a study protocol. Gland Surg. 2021;10(8):2591-2599. PMID: 34527570
The scoping review that informed development of the SUPER guideline is available at:
Shi Q, Ma Y, Zhang X, Jiao P, Zhang K, Barchi LC, Bedetti B, Wu J, Wei B, Ng CSH, Toker A, Shen J, Fruscio R, Gilbert S, Petersen RH, Hochwald S, Štupnik T, Elkhayat H, Scarci M, Levi Sandri GB, Abu Akar F, Waseda R, Sihoe ADL, Fiorelli A, Gonzalez M, Davoli F, Li GS, Tang X, Qiu B, Wang SD, Chen Y, Gao S. Reporting guidelines for surgical technique could be improved: A scoping review and a call for action. J Clin Epidemiol. 2022:S0895-4356(22)00298-0. PMID: 36574532 and the scoping review protocol is at PMID: 34422603