Table 1

Guidelines to remove spin

Spin	Interventions/modifications
Spin in headline	Delete the misleading information and report the appropriate information.
Spin in text
Misleading reporting
Misleading reporting of study design	Report the appropriate study design.
Not reporting study population if an animal study	Report animal study subjects.
Selective reporting of outcomes	Report the results for all primary outcomes.
Not reporting adverse events	Report adverse events when higher in one group. (We considered reporting more frequent and serious adverse events related to treatment primarily.)
Use of linguistic spin	Delete linguistic spin.
Not reporting study limitations and caution specific to study design	Report the study limitations and cautions. The cautions with standardised text are described in table 2.
Misleading interpretation
Claiming a beneficial effect of intervention despite statistically non-significant results Claiming an equivalent beneficial effect of intervention despite statistically non-significant results in superiority RCTs	Delete this spin and use the generic wording, such as: Treatment A was not more effective on ‘primary outcome’ than the comparator B in patients with …
Claiming the treatment is safe despite statistically non-significant results in treatment and comparison groups Claiming safety despite adverse events Claiming a causal effect despite non-randomised study design Claiming a beneficial effect despite small sample size not reported Claiming a beneficial effect despite lack of comparator Focus on P value instead of magnitude of the effect (effect size)	Delete this spin; reword and provide the appropriate information when needed.
Misleading extrapolation
Animal study results to human application Preliminary study results to clinical application Study outcomes to other outcomes for the disease Study intervention to a different intervention Study participants to a larger or different population	Delete the inappropriate extrapolation.
Inappropriate implication for clinical or daily use	Delete the statement and clearly report the immediate unavailability in clinical practice.
Author’s/expert’s statement (interview)
	Delete the spin in the statement.
	Report the caution or recommendation by study authors, reported in the relevant article when available.

RCT, randomised controlled trial.