The role of the explanation and elaboration document is to provide the background, rationale and justification for the guidelines as well as to provide examples for users regarding what information should be included and how to report this information.
In order to determine better if an item is accurately reported in the articles, we took into account the guidance provided by the STARD Explanation and Elaboration document [ 21].
The development of the explanation and elaboration document was completed after several face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, and iterations among the authors.
The Explanation and Elaboration document was produced after the meeting.
If this had been the only issue, careful copy editing of the document and broadening of the explanation and elaboration document would be all that was needed.
The explanation and elaboration document was completed after several face to face meetings and numerous iterations among several meeting participants, after which it was shared with the whole group for additional revisions and final approval.
The Explanation and Elaboration document illustrates each item with at least one published example that we consider transparent in reporting, explains the rationale for its inclusion in the checklist, and presents details of the items that need to be addressed to ensure transparent reporting.
This systematic review of rTMS and SD co-therapy for depression was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement (Additional file 1) as well as with the explanation and elaboration document that evaluates health care interventions [ 35– 35].
A lack of clarification of the meaning and rationale for each checklist item in the original CONSORT statement has been remedied with the development of the CONSORT explanation and elaboration document, [ 19] which can also be found on the CONSORT Internet site, [ 13].
The CONSORT explanation and elaboration document extended its recommendations on the reporting of follow-up time in 2010, and in addition to stating the median duration of follow-up, now also recommends stating the minimum and maximum duration [ 21].
