tion studies, in the past 2 years guidance for drafting research protocols have been published (PRISMA-P and SPIRIT checklist, respectively), along with dedicated websites (http://www.crd.york. ac.uk/PROSPERO/ and http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, respectively). Though the endorsement by scientists of such guidance checklists is impressive, no one guidance for observational epidemiologic study pro...

OBJECTIVES To report some of the most serious omissions and errors which may occur in papers submitted to Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and to give guidelines on the essential components that should be included in papers reporting results from studies of occupational and environmental health. METHODS Since 1994 Occupational and Environmental Medicine has used a panel of medical sta...

As knowledge of the etiology of a disease increases, the disciplines seeming to have the greatest potential for producing further advances change. In the development of knowledge of the infectious diseases, centuries of clinical and pathologic study devoted to definition preceded a phase of productive epi-demiologic investigation that itself has now given way to an era of laboratory predominanc...

Epidemiologic methods can be categorized into demographic studies of mortality and morbidity and observational studies that are either retrospective or prospective. Some of the limitations of demographic studies are illustrated by a review of one specific mortality study showing possible relationship of nuclear fallout to leukemia. Problems of accuracy of diagnosis or causes of death on death c...