Pragmatic and Observational Research

Aims & Scope

An international, peer reviewed, open access journal that publishes data from studies designed to reflect more closely medical interventions in real-world clinical practice compared with classical randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Classical RCTs are designed to maximise internal validity and to establish an unequivocal cause-and-effect relationship between an intervention and an outcome. Classical RCT populations represent only minority groups of real-life patients and are thus limited in their extent. Complementary data from studies designed to reflect more closely the nature of real-world patients and medicines usage are required to inform guidelines and extrapolate research findings across the broad heterogeneous patient populations encountered in everyday clinical practice. The journal publishes data from prospective and retrospective studies designed to evaluate outcomes associated with real-world clinical practice. Dissemination of this data and the techniques and approaches used to optimise real-world modeling allows outcome validation and improved standards and collaboration in this growing area of research.

A twelfth criterion — whether APC fees are clearly disclosed — is not scored here; it is left out of the total rather than counted as a failure. Publication charges appear in the metrics card above.

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Subject Classification