Analysis of Practices to Promote Reproducibility and Transparency in Anaesthesiology Research: Are Important Aspects “Hidden Behind the Drapes?”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction Reliable, high-quality research is essential to the field of anaesthesiology. Reproducibility and transparency has been investigated in the biomedical domain and in the social sciences, with both lacking to provide necessary information to reproduce the study findings. In this study, we investigated 14 indicators of reproducibility in anaesthesiology research. Methods We used the National Library of Medicine (NLM) catalogue to search for all anaesthesiology journals that are MEDLINE indexed and provided English texts. PubMed was searched with the list of journals to identify all publications from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018. We randomly sampled 300 publications that fit the inclusion criteria for our analysis. Data extraction was then conducted in a blinded, duplicate fashion using a pilot-tested Google form. Results The PubMed search of these journals identified 171,441 publications, with 28,310 being within the time frame. From the 300 publications sampled, 296 full-text publications were accessible. Most of the studies did not include materials or protocol availability statements. The majority of publications did not provide a data analysis script statement (121/122, 99% [98% to 100%]) or a preregistration statement (94/122, 77% [72% to 81%]). Conclusion Anaesthesiology research needs to drastically improve indicators of reproducibility and transparency. By making research publically available and improving accessibility to detailed study components, primary research can be reproduced in subsequent studies and help contribute to the development of new practice guidelines.

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