The methodological quality of 176,620 randomized controlled trials published between 1966 and 2018 reveals a positive trend but also an urgent need for improvement

• Christiaan H. Vinkers ,

  Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision

  * E-mail: c.vinkers@amsterdamumc.nl

  Affiliation Department of Psychiatry and Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3698-0744

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• Herm J. Lamberink,

  Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Child Neurology, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, and Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

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• Joeri K. Tijdink,

  Roles Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Ethics, Law and Humanities, Amsterdam UMC, and Department of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

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• Pauline Heus,

  Roles Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Cochrane Netherlands, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6886-4652

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• Lex Bouter,

  Roles Investigation, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Epidemiology and Data Science, Amsterdam UMC, and Department of Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2659-5482

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• Paul Glasziou,

  Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia

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• David Moher,

  Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2434-4206

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• Johanna A. Damen,

  Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Cochrane Netherlands, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7401-4593

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• Lotty Hooft,

  Roles Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Cochrane Netherlands, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

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• Willem M. Otte

  Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Supervision, Writing – original draft

  Affiliation Department of Child Neurology, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, and Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1511-6834

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