{"doi":"10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.36023","title":"Reporting of Observational Studies Explicitly Aiming to Emulate Randomized Trials","abstract":"Importance: Observational (nonexperimental) studies that aim to emulate a randomized trial (ie, the target trial) are increasingly informing medical and policy decision-making, but it is unclear how these studies are reported in the literature. Consistent reporting is essential for quality appraisal, evidence synthesis, and translation of evidence to policy and practice. Objective: To assess the reporting of observational studies that explicitly aimed to emulate a target trial. Evidence Review: We searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and Web of Science for observational studies published between March 2012 and October 2022 that explicitly aimed to emulate a target trial of a health or medical intervention. Two reviewers double-screened and -extracted data on study characteristics, key predefined components of the target trial protocol and its emulation (eligibility criteria, treatment strategies, treatment assignment, outcome[s], follow-up, causal contrast[s], and analysis plan), and other items related to the target trial emulation. Findings: A total of 200 studies that explicitly aimed to emulate a target trial were included. These studies included 26 subfields of medicine, and 168 (84%) were published from January 2020 to October 2022. The aim to emulate a target trial was explicit in 70 study titles (35%). Forty-three studies (22%) reported use of a published reporting guideline (eg, Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology). Eighty-five studies (43%) did not describe all key items of how the target trial was emulated and 113 (57%) did not describe the protocol of the target trial and its emulation. Conclusion and Relevance: In this systematic review of 200 studies that explicitly aimed to emulate a target trial, reporting of how the target trial was emulated was inconsistent. A reporting guideline for studies explicitly aiming to emulate a target trial may improve the reporting of the target trial protocols and other aspects of these emulation attempts.","journal":"JAMA Network Open","year":2023,"id":316730,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":94,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9631,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1021018,"name":"Aidan G Cashin","orcid":"0000-0003-4190-7912","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021019,"name":"Matthew D. Jones","orcid":"0000-0002-5534-755X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492585,"name":"Sonja A. Swanson","orcid":"0000-0002-2535-9605","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":61186,"name":"Nazrul Islam","orcid":"0000-0003-3982-4325","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021849,"name":"Susan R. G. Douglas","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021020,"name":"Rodrigo R N Rizzo","orcid":"0000-0002-9624-6210","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021021,"name":"Jack J Devonshire","orcid":"0000-0002-8226-9673","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021022,"name":"Sam A Williams","orcid":"0000-0003-3322-5997","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":404672,"name":"Issa J Dahabreh","orcid":"0000-0002-2215-9931","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":324240,"name":"Barbra A. Dickerman","orcid":"0000-0003-2843-687X","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":4469,"name":"Matthias Egger","orcid":"0000-0001-7462-5132","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":307412,"name":"Xabier García‐Albéniz","orcid":"0000-0002-9814-2343","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":24027,"name":"Robert Golub","orcid":"0000-0001-7881-1207","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":416056,"name":"Sara Lodi","orcid":"0000-0002-9419-7830","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":498743,"name":"Margarita Moreno‐Betancur","orcid":"0000-0002-8818-3125","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1014568,"name":"Sallie‐Anne Pearson","orcid":"0000-0001-7137-6855","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476941,"name":"Sebastian Schneeweiß","orcid":"0000-0003-2575-467X","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":2304,"name":"Jonathan A. C. Sterne","orcid":"0000-0001-8496-6053","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021023,"name":"Melissa K. Sharp","orcid":"0000-0001-5261-1573","position":19,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":287735,"name":"Elizabeth A. Stuart","orcid":"0000-0002-9042-8611","position":20,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":80984,"name":"Miguel A. Hernán","orcid":"0000-0003-1619-8456","position":21,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021024,"name":"Hopin Lee","orcid":"0000-0001-5692-0314","position":22,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021025,"name":"James H. McAuley","orcid":"0000-0002-0550-828X","position":23,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1021017,"name":"Harrison J Hansford","orcid":"0000-0002-5942-8509","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":300,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:06:44.698773Z","pmid":"37755828","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}