Methods Christian Gratzke LMU Munich Department of Urology London, March 2017

Material and methods section is the core of each paper Material & Methods Material and methods section is the core of each paper It describes how the study was designed, and performed as well as the way the data were analyzed It has to provide all the elements to allow other authors to reproduce the study

It is the easiest part of the manuscript to write Material & Methods It is the easiest part of the manuscript to write Writing this section of the paper in the most complete way before starting the study can help to discover methodological biases in a moment when they are easily fixed!

Period of enrolment/evaluation Material & Methods Period of enrolment/evaluation Type of study (retrospective; prospective; controlled; randomized) Inclusion criteria / patient selection Exclusion criteria / reasons to exclude patients

Details on used materials or technique Material & Methods Details on used materials or technique - report in detail original methods/techniques - cite (and reference) known methods Ethical issue

IRB approval Clinical setting Quality control Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria Detail on centers involved (added on reviewer’s request)

Description of surgery of the primary tumor and lymph node Description of pathology procedure TNM staging system and grading system Describe in detail what is of central relevance or not standardized or not well known

Material & Methods Description of follow-up protocols Definition of the events (disease recurrence and death of disease)

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www.consort-statement.org

Material & Methods section in RCT – Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (Consort) www.consort-statement.org

Material & Methods – basic research Describe what you did – lab note book recordings! Antibody specifications, concentrations, dosages: the reader needs to be able to reproduce the method If the technique is well-established, it may be referenced Short passages for each technique employed

Material & Methods – basic research Try to keep it simple, even if it is a sophisticated topic Descriptions should be crisp and accurate (word count!) Statistics need to be clearly defined Don´t forget to mention the ethical permission If the methods section is unclear, the ms will fail!

What Methods should NOT include Study results (by definition, they go in the “Results” section) Comments on patients characteristics, indications, inclusion and exclusion criteria (they go in the “Discussion” section)

Thank you