Examples of problems identified at prepublication and not fixed by time of publication
| Paper title | Type of problem identified at prepublication and postpublication | Nature of the problem |
|---|---|---|
| Partner notification of chlamydia infection in primary care: RCT and analysis of resource use | Procedure | Not clear exactly what was done and when |
| Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: RCT | Intensity | Description of didgeridoo practise times not clear |
| Treatment of low back pain by acupressure and physical therapy: RCT | Procedure | Can't tell how personalised the treatment was—who had what done and when |
| Effect of enhanced psychosocial care on antipsychotic use in nursing home residents with severe dementia: cluster randomised trial | Procedure | Complex intervention and what was received and when for both groups is unclear |
| Effect of patient-completed agenda forms and doctors’ education about the agenda on the outcome of consultations: RCT | Recipient | Recipient of intervention unclear |
| Effect of telephone contact on further suicide attempts in patients discharged from an emergency department: randomised controlled study | Procedure | More details needed on the content and duration of the phone calls, that is, effort involved to enhance compliance |
| Effective control of dengue vectors with curtains and water container covers treated with insecticides in Mexico and Venezuela: cluster randomised trials | Procedure | Not clear why all the houses did not get nets and what they actually received |
| RCT of four commercial weight loss programmes in the UK: initial findings from the BBC “diet trials” | Procedure | Not enough details of the content of the programmes or time involved |
| An RCT of management strategies for acute infective conjunctivitis in general practise | Recipient | Recipients poorly described re conjunctivitis inclusion/exclusion criteria |
| Effectiveness of telephone counselling by a pharmacist in reducing mortality in patients receiving polypharmacy: RCT | Procedure | Not clear exactly what the pharmacists said or did. It must have been more than just a reminder phonecall |
| Telephone-administered cognitive behavioural therapy for treatment of obsessive−compulsive disorder: randomised controlled non-inferiority trial | Procedure | The actual therapy provided is only very briefly described |
| Mobilisation with movement and exercise, corticosteroid injection, or wait and see for tennis elbow: randomised trial | Procedure | Not clear what the physiotherapy actually involved |
| Effectiveness of community physiotherapy and enhanced pharmacy review for knee pain in people aged over 55 presenting to primary care: pragmatic randomised trial | Procedure | Not clear what happened and when. Content of pharmacist sessions unclear. NB: Not fully described due to space limitations. More complete description of the pharmacy intervention subsequently published22 |
| Prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in high-risk social networks of young Roma (Gypsy) men in Bulgaria: RCT | Procedure | Intervention components versus what controls received not clear—need to know the details of the intervention |
BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation; RCT, randomised controlled trial.