About

TrAnsparent ReportinG of studies Emulating a Target Trial (TARGET) Guideline

The guideline was developed to support authors of observational studies aiming to emulate a target trial report their studies clearly and transparently. Use of the TARGET guideline should help readers, reviewers and journal editors evaluate studies emulating a target trial.

The TARGET statement document describes the processes used to develop the TARGET guideline and provides a minimum but essential checklist of items to report in target trial emulation studies.

The Explanation and Elaboration document will provide in-depth information on each item of the checklist to assist users of the TARGET guideline. The checklist is best used in consultation with the explanation and elaboration document.

The Checklist

The TARGET checklist contains the minimum information recommended to be reported in a manuscript of a study emulating a target trial.

The TARGET checklist, when available will be able to be accessed via the links below.

(Coming Soon)

Resources & Templates

TARGET Publications

Templates (Coming Soon)

Share This Page


Follow Us For Updates
@TARGETGuideline on X

Members of the TARGET Team

The TARGET guideline team includes epidemiologists, clinician-researchers, clinicians, statisticians, methodologists, industry-based researchers, psychologists, journal editors, science communicators and funders.


Aidan Cashin

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Issa Dahabreh

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Barbra Dickerman

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Matthias Egger

Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern (Switzerland)

Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol (UK)

Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town (South Africa)

Xabier Garcia-Albeniz

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

RTI Health Solutions, Barcelona (Spain)

Robert Golub

Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL (USA)

Harrison Hansford

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Miguel Hernán

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Nazrul Islam

Oxford Population Health, Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford (UK)

Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton (UK)

Matthew Jones

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Hopin Lee

University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter (UK)

IQVIA, London (UK)

Sara Lodi

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

James McAuley

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Margarita Moreno-Betancur

Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC (Australia)

Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville (Australia)

Sallie-Anne Pearson

School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Sebastian Schneeweiss

Division of Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (USA)

Melissa Sharp

Department of Health Psychology, School of Population Health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin (Ireland)

Jonathan Sterne

Department of Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol (UK)

NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (UK)

Health Data Research UK South-West, Bristol (UK)

Elizabeth Stuart

Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD (USA)

Sonja Swanson

Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA)

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Steering Committee


Aidan Cashin

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Harrison Hansford

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Miguel Hernán

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Sonja Swanson

Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA)

CAUSALab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA (USA)

Matthew Jones

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Hopin Lee

University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter (UK)

IQVIA, London (UK)

James McAuley

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Centre for Pain IMPACT, Neuroscience Research Australia (Australia)

Contact Us

The TARGET Guideline