ReviewBMJ open2022
Reporting of data on participant ethnicity and socioeconomic status in high-impact medical journals: a targeted literature review.
Review in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Adherence to Updated Race and Ethnicity Reporting Guidance in Ophthalmology Journals.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- Reporting and representation of underserved groups in intervention studies for patients with multiple long-term conditions: a systematic review.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of the association between history of sexually transmitted infections and subsequent condom use in adolescents.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Virtual consultations for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2022Pooled it
- Singing for lung health following completion of pulmonary rehabilitation: feasibility of a randomised controlled trial.BMJ open respiratory research · 2026Trial
- The dilemma of using racial and ethnic categories in biomedical research.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Who gets included? Equity in digital and decentralised mental health and neurodevelopmental trials: A systematic review.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Article
- Establishing a set of acceptable demographic questions for use in health research through public consultation.Research involvement and engagement · 2026Article
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- Article
- Article
- Core sociodemographic data variables reported in Canadian intensive care unit studies: a scoping review.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2025Review
- Who is in your trial? Improving the reporting of participant characteristics in trial protocols and results.Trials · 2025Article
- Improving the reporting on health equity in observational research (STROBE-Equity): extension checklist and elaboration.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Athletes' access to, attitudes towards and experiences of help-seeking for mental health: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2025Article
- The use of race and ethnicity in sickle cell disease research.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Review
- Article
- How good are we at reporting the socioeconomic position, ethnicity, race, religion and main language of research participants? A review of the quality of reporting in palliative care intervention studies.Palliative medicine · 2024Review
- Editorial: Recommendations on inclusive language and transparent reporting relating to diversity dimensions for the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology.Journal of pediatric psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo assess the frequency of reporting of ethnicity (or 'race') and socioeconomic status (SES) indicators in high-impact journals.
designTargeted literature review. DATA SOURCES: The 10 highest ranked general medical journals using Google scholar h5 index. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Inclusion criteria were, human research, reporting participant level data. Exclusion criteria were non-research article, animal/other non-human participant/subject or no participant characteristics reported. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Working backwards from 19 April 2021 in each journal, two independent reviewers selected the 10 most recent articles meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria, to create a sample of 100 articles. Data on the frequency of reporting of ethnicity (or 'race') and SES indicators were extracted and presented using descriptive statistics.
resultsOf 100 research articles included, 35 reported ethnicity and 13 SES. By contrast, 99 reported age, and 97 reported sex or gender. Among the articles not reporting ethnicity, only 3 (5%) highlighted this as a limitation, and only 6 (7%) where SES data were missing. Median number of articles reporting ethnicity per journal was 2.5/10 (range 0 to 9). Only two journals explicitly requested reporting of ethnicity (or race), and one requested SES.
conclusionsThe majority of research published in high-impact medical journals does not include data on the ethnicity and SES of participants, and this omission is rarely acknowledged as a limitation. This situation persists despite the well-established importance of this issue and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors recommendations to include relevant demographic variables to ensure representative samples. Standardised explicit minimum standards are required.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.