Compliance With Standards for STARD 2015 Reporting Recommendations in Pathology

Area of Science:

• Pathology
• Medical Research
• Scientific Reporting

Background:

• Experimental reproducibility is a growing concern in scientific research.
• Guidelines for complete and transparent research reporting are increasingly important.
• The Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (STARD) statement aims to improve diagnostic accuracy study reporting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess compliance with the STARD 2015 statement in recent pathology diagnostic accuracy literature.
• To identify specific areas of strength and weakness in reporting practices.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective survey of 171 pathology diagnostic accuracy studies.
• Independent scoring by two raters for compliance with 34 STARD items.
• Calculation of overall adherence after excluding nonapplicable items.

Main Results:

• Overall adherence to STARD recommendations was 50%.
• Average reporting of 15.44 out of 34 STARD items per article.
• Significant heterogeneity in reporting, with few studies reporting hypotheses, subgroup analyses, sample size calculations, or study registration details.
• Journals endorsing STARD showed significantly higher adherence.

Conclusions:

• Pathology diagnostic accuracy studies exhibit incomplete reporting of essential items.
• Enhanced enforcement of reporting checklists could improve adherence to minimum standards.
• Improved reporting is vital for research transparency and reproducibility.