{"doi":"10.1111/iej.12626","title":"A quality assessment of randomized controlled trial reports in endodontics","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Aim</jats:title><jats:p>To assess the quality of the randomized clinical trial (<jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>) reports published in Endodontics between 1997 and 2012.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methodology</jats:title><jats:p>Retrieval of <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>s in Endodontics was based on a search of the Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) database (March 2013). Quality evaluation was performed using a checklist based on the Jadad criteria, <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">CONSORT</jats:styled-content> (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement and <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">SPIRIT</jats:styled-content> (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials). Descriptive statistics were used for frequency distribution of data. Student's t‐test and Welch test were used to identify the influence of certain trial characteristics upon report quality (α = 0.05).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 89 <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>s were evaluated, and several methodological flaws were found: only 45% had random sequence generation at low risk of bias, 75% did not provide information on allocation concealment, and 19% were nonblinded designs. Regarding statistics, only 55% of the <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>s performed adequate sample size estimations, only 16% presented confidence intervals, and 25% did not provide the exact <jats:italic>P</jats:italic>‐value. Also, 2% of the articles used no statistical tests, and in 87% of the <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>s, the information provided was insufficient to determine whether the statistical methodology applied was appropriate or not. Significantly higher scores were observed for multicentre trials (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.023), <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>s signed by more than 5 authors (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.03), articles belonging to journals ranked above the <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">JCR</jats:styled-content> median (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.03), and articles complying with the <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">CONSORT</jats:styled-content> guidelines (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.000).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The quality of <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content> reports in key areas for internal validity of the study was poor. Several measures, such as compliance with the <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">CONSORT</jats:styled-content> guidelines, are important in order to raise the quality of <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">RCT</jats:styled-content>s in Endodontics.</jats:p></jats:sec>","journal":"International Endodontic Journal","year":2017,"id":46280,"datarank":2.5882634489497294,"base_score":3.713572066704308,"endowment":3.713572066704308,"self_citation_contribution":0.5570358100056463,"citation_network_contribution":2.0312276389440833,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5570358100056463,"citer_contribution":2.0312276389440833,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":40,"citer_count":40,"citers_with_citation_signal":34,"citers_with_endowment":34,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":214849,"name":"E. M. Souza","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214850,"name":"G. C. Voinea","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214851,"name":"R. Pulgar","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214852,"name":"M. J. Valderrama","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214853,"name":"G. De‐Deus","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214848,"name":"C. Lucena","orcid":"0000-0002-7987-8822","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":3.713572066704308,"endowment":3.713572066704308,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"26932828","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2291492010","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"European Regional Development Fund","grant_id":"MAT2013‐43946R","title":null},{"funder_name":"European Regional Development Fund","grant_id":"MTM2013‐47929P","title":null},{"funder_name":"Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":3,"fwci":3.4703,"citation_percentile":0.93441182,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2017,"count":3},{"year":2018,"count":4},{"year":2019,"count":5},{"year":2020,"count":10},{"year":2021,"count":5},{"year":2022,"count":6},{"year":2023,"count":1},{"year":2024,"count":2},{"year":2025,"count":3},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"closed","license":"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fiej.12626","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/iej.12626","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1111/iej.12626","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26932828","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Meta-analysis and systematic reviews","Clinical practice guidelines implementation","Ethics in Clinical Research","Medicine","Endodontics","Humans","Periodicals as Topic","Quality Control","Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic"],"mesh_terms":["Endodontics","Humans","Periodicals as Topic","Quality Control","Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic"],"keywords":["Randomized controlled trial","Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials","Medicine","Jadad scale","Checklist","Descriptive statistics","Protocol (science)","Sample size determination","Test (biology)","Endodontics","Medical physics","Statistics","Dentistry","Mathematics","Psychology","Surgery","Alternative medicine","Pathology","Systematic review","Quality assessment","Randomized Clinical Trial"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"No poverty"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-08T01:43:58.742233Z","pmid":null,"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":[]}