BMJ  2007;335 (1 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39322.465949.47

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

How to do it

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

How many papers, particularly those reporting randomised controlled trials, fully describe what the researchers did? If you knew what the interventions truly comprised you might practise better, give more useful advice to patients, hone the design of your next study, replicate the trial, or decide whether to include the trial in a systematic review.

Nadine Foster and colleagues fill this evidence gap with their multicentre trial of physiotherapy advice, exercise, and true or sham acupuncture for osteoarthritis of the knee. In the full version on bmj.com of the paper we publish this week (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39280.509803.BE) they say what the physiotherapists did: the kind of exercises they used and the sizes, sites, and manipulations of acupuncture needles they inserted. The paper's web extras include the advice leaflet for patients about knee problems (www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.39280.509803.BE/DC1) and the illustrated handout showing patients how to do exercises at home (www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.39280.509803.BE/DC2).

. . . [Full text of this article]

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