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Author correspondence
Lack of reporting should not be deemed to be poor quality (Mhaskar 2012). Empirical research demonstrates that correspondence with trial authors can reduce the number of “unclear” domains to either low (Atherton 2013) or high (Vale 2013)
Additional information can be obtained from emailing trial authors • Not just for risk of bias assessments
• Especially useful when only have an abstract/grey literature
Author email addresses can be found from:
1. Corresponding author of the paper often supplies an email address 2. Email addresses of authors from other papers
3. Generic email to the administrator of their faculty/department/clinic 4. Google, linkedin, facebook... get creative!
Ask open questions and interpret responses cautiously
• not “how did you conceal the allocations” but “please describe in detail the process of allocation”
Judgement etiquette
• Use quotation marks for direct excerpts from text or correspondence
• Make it clear whether information is from the paper or author correspondence
• Provide additional text to accompany quotes for further elaboration
• More detail is better than less
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