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Reporting-guideline finder
Pubrica’s free reporting-guideline finder identifies the checklist that applies to your study design, such as CONSORT, PRISMA or STROBE. It shows the current version, the number of items and any registration requirement, with the date the source was checked, to help you prepare a manuscript to journal requirements.
The tool runs in your browser. No registration, email address or file upload is required, and the formula, reference or assessment criteria used are shown with the result.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing uploaded or stored
- No email asked for
- Method shown with the answer
- Sources dated
The Tool
Find the Reporting Guideline for Your Study Design
Identifies the reporting guideline for your study design, its current version, number of items and registration requirements.
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Identifies the reporting guideline for your study design, its current version, number of items and registration requirements.
CONSORT · PRISMA · STROBE · 14 moreProspective registration before the first participant is enrolled — ICMJE journals will not consider a trial registered afterwards.
SPIRIT 2025 for the protocol; CONSORT-Outcomes, -Harms or -PRO if they apply.
CONSORT 2025 supersedes CONSORT 2010, which should no longer be used. If the intervention is an AI system, you also need CONSORT-AI (2020) — which is still written against the 2010 checklist, because no 2025 AI extension exists yet. Say in the methods which two documents you followed.
Sources. Each entry was checked against the guideline’s own publication or its EQUATOR Network record in September 2026. Guidelines are revised without much warning — CONSORT and SPIRIT both changed in 2025 and TRIPOD in 2024 — so check the EQUATOR Network before you submit, and check the journal’s own instructions, which sometimes still name a retired version.
Limitations
What This Tool Does Not Cover
Use the result as a starting point. These are the situations in which it needs specialist review.
The lookups
Limitations of the guideline and funder lookups
Reporting guidelines and funder rules move without much warning — CONSORT and SPIRIT both changed in 2025, TRIPOD in 2024, and two ERC career windows widened for the 2027 calls. Each of those tools carries the date its sources were last read and names them. Check the EQUATOR Network or the call text before you rely on it, and check the journal’s own instructions too, because they sometimes still name a retired version.
Method
Methods and Sources
The calculation or reference set behind this tool. The result panel also shows the formula or criteria used.
Reporting guidelines
Read September 2026
Each entry was checked against the guideline’s own publication or its EQUATOR Network record, including the two changes most likely to catch an author out: TRIPOD+AI replacing TRIPOD 2015, and CONSORT 2025 not covering AI interventions.
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