Reporting, Dissemination, and Translation of Findings
Reporting standards
Candidates should know that reporting guidelines exist for major designs and that their purpose is transparent, complete reporting of what was done and found. Understand the general structure of a research report: rationale, methods, results, limitations, and interpretation. Know that the methods section must permit replication and that the results section should report estimates with uncertainty rather than only p-values.
Dissemination and bias
Understand publication bias, selective outcome reporting, and outcome switching as threats to the evidence base. Learn the rationale for trial registration, posting results, and reporting negative findings. Know that authorship and acknowledgment practices affect accountability, and that dissemination includes audiences beyond journals: policymakers, practitioners, and participants.
Translation and impact
Understand the pathway from evidence to practice: synthesis, guideline development, implementation, and evaluation. Know that translation requires attention to context, feasibility, and stakeholder engagement, and that an effective intervention may fail in a new setting for reasons unrelated to its efficacy.
Traps
- Reporting only statistically significant results while omitting others.
- Describing limitations vaguely instead of naming specific threats and their direction.
- Assuming a positive trial automatically justifies a change in practice.
- Overstating generalizability beyond the studied population and setting.
Worked rule of thumb
Draft the abstract last and check it against the results tables: every number in the abstract should be traceable to a reported estimate, and every claim should be qualified by the design and its limitations. Untraceable claims are the most common reporting error.