Randomized trials are the gold standard experiment for clinical knowledge, yet reports of trials are often incomplete and ambiguous. The CONSORT trial reporting recommendations seeks to improve the reporting of trials in journal articles. CONSORT Plus is an extension of the CONSORT requirements to trial-bank publishing. Trial banks are structured, standardized, electronic knowledge bases of RCTs. CONSORT Plus is therefore more extensive than CONSORT, and it imposes data integrity constraints that are not possible in text-based reporting. For a task-based justification of these reporting requirements, see our task analysis of systematic reviewing.
The pages below list the Required, Recommended and Optional items in the CONSORT Plus guidelines. Required items are those items essential for systematic reviewing. In trial-bank publishing, Bank-a-Trial enforced the reporting of the CONSORT Plus required items, and accommodated the reporting of recommended and optional items.