Reply to the Hong-Lin Chen article on CONSORT (2010) recommendations

We welcome the article by Hong-Lin Chen analysing the adherence to the CONSORT 2010 recommendations of the reporting of randomised clinical trials [1]. The CONSORT group has made recommendations designed to improve the quality of reporting of trials and the 2010 update extends these [2]. It should be noted however, that these are not consensus guidelines produced by a specialist society, nor have they been produced by an impartial conference to which a variety of views have been invited, nor have they used accepted methodologies for producing guidelines such as one would expect for clinical practice guidelines. Despite these limitations they remain an interesting set of informed and useful practical recommendations for authors, reviewers and editors alike that have been warmly recommended by a number of journals.