Sample characteristics
| Sample characteristics | N (%) |
| Research experience | |
| PhD student | 43 (80) |
| Post-doctoral student | 11 (20) |
| Affiliation regarding the current paper | |
| First author | 50 (93) |
| Coauthor | 4 (7) |
| Study design | |
| Systematic review | 10 (19) |
| Randomised controlled study | 11 (20) |
| Observational study (cross-sectional, cohort, case-control) | 33 (61) |
| Previous reporting guidelines use* | |
| No, it will be my first time to use reporting guidelines | 27 (50) |
| Yes, to write or co-write a paper | 13 (22) |
| Yes, to write this paper | 11 (17) |
| Yes, to review a paper | 2 (2) |
| Frequency of reporting guidelines use | |
| Never | 19 (35) |
| Rarely | 12 (22) |
| Sometimes | 9 (17) |
| Usually | 12 (22) |
| Every time | 2 (4) |
| Motivation of guideline use*† | |
| Self-motivation or motivation from colleagues or coauthors | 12 (22) |
| Journal suggestions to use checklists within the writing process | 1 (2) |
| Journal requirements to fill the checklist at the end | 5 (9) |
| Subjective knowledge | |
| How do you rank your knowledge with respect to the content of the reporting guideline?‡ | |
| Very knowledgeable | 3 (6) |
| Somewhat knowledgeable | 17 (31) |
| Neither knowledgeable nor unknowledgeable | 8 (15) |
| Somewhat unknowledgeable | 10 (19) |
| Very unknowledgeable | 15 (28) |
| How do you rank your knowledge with respect to the utilisation of the reporting guideline? | |
| Very knowledgeable | 2 (4) |
| Somewhat knowledgeable | 17 (31) |
| Neither knowledgeable nor unknowledgeable | 9 (17) |
| Somewhat knowledgeable | 11 (20) |
| Very unknowledgeable | 15 (28) |
| Objective Knowledge | |
| Answer the following statement with true or false (frequency of the correct answer) | |
| The checklist should be used to evaluate the quality of papers* ( FALSE) | 9 (17) |
| The reporting checklists must be completely filled, or my paper will be rejected† ( FALSE) | 37 (69) |
| It is acceptable to report that some items on the checklist are not applicable to my study* ( TRUE) | 49 (91) |
| Reporting on items that are not carried out will add more clarity to my paper and will not lead to rejection* ( TRUE) | 36 (69) |
| The checklists aim to make reporting more clear, complete and transparent*(TRUE) | 51 (94) |
| The checklist aim to improve communication between coauthor* ( FALSE) | 34 (63) |
*Indicate a multiple-response question.
†n = 27
‡n=53