| Some guidelines on guidelines: they should come with expiration dates. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 18049192 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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The STROBE guidelines (for Strengthening the Reporting of OBservational Studies in Epidemiology) add to a lengthy catalog of attempts to keep epidemiologists on more or less straight and more or less narrow paths charted by guideline authors. STROBE has an ambitious goal, and may prove highly useful for some. It raises concern, however, about a problem generic to guidelines, namely how long they will be useful. Guidelines may be inevitable, but they can foster ossification and be counterproductive. Who today would be happy with epidemiology guidelines issued in, say, 1960, 1970, 1980, or even, 1990? One solution is to offer each set of guidelines with an expiration date, beyond which it would cease to apply. Such a policy would at least prompt revisions. We propose that the STROBE guidelines might expire on 31 December 2010 or 3 years after any revision. |
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Authors:
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Kenneth J Rothman; Charles Poole |
Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) Volume: 18 ISSN: 1044-3983 ISO Abbreviation: Epidemiology Publication Date: 2007 Nov |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2007-11-30 Completed Date: 2008-01-24 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 9009644 Medline TA: Epidemiology Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 794-6 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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RTI Health Solutions, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA. krothman@rti.org |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Epidemiologic Research Design* Guidelines as Topic* Observation* Publishing / standards* United States |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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