Match the checklist to your study design: use CONSORT for a randomized trial, STROBE for a cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional study, and PRISMA for a systematic review. Each checklist covers reporting completeness for its own design, so the design decides the choice.
Match the design to the checklist
- CONSORT is the reporting guideline and checklist for randomized trials. It supports complete reporting of a trial.
- STROBE provides reporting checklists for cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional observational studies.
- PRISMA 2020 provides a checklist and flow diagrams for systematic reviews, covering why the review was done, what methods were used, and what studies were found and included.
Build a section-level item map
- Identify the design your manuscript reports, such as a randomized trial, an observational study, or a systematic review. The result is one checklist whose scope matches that design.
- Copy the checklist items into a table with columns for the item, the manuscript section that addresses it (for example Methods or Results), and the page or paragraph where it appears. The result is a map from each item to a location in your draft.
- Mark each item as addressed, partially addressed, or missing, then revise the sections with gaps. The result is a draft that reports each item in the section the checklist assigns it to.
Treat all three as reporting-completeness tools. CONSORT supports complete reporting of a trial, and STROBE assesses reporting completeness, not study quality. Use the checklist to confirm that your manuscript reports what the design requires; judge study quality through separate appraisal.