Reporting guidelines should be free to publish read and use

摘要

Reporting guidelines are important tools aimed at improving transparency and reproducibility in health research [1-6]. However, many reporting guidelines are currently hidden behind paywalls and restrictive copyright licences, which is in direct opposition to their stated goal. The UK EQUATOR Centre (https://www.equator-network.org/about-us/uk-equator-centre/) argues that tools created to improve transparency in research should be freely accessible for all researchers to read, share, use, and build upon and that publishers should facilitate this by waiving article processing charges (APCs) from reporting guidelines.