Faculty Opinions recommendation of The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies.
The STROBE guidelines will be particularly helpful for clinical researchers without specific training in epidemiology. The authors provide recommendations and guidance for the reporting of the three main study designs that are used in observational research: cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies. The STROBE guidelines should not be treated as a quality assessment tool for a published observational study, but rather as a helpful tool when writing up an observational study. As one of the authors has said in an interview, "It's meant to be a life-jacket rather than a straight-jacket".