ICH E3 section 9.1 asks for a clear description of the overall study design and plan, including treatments, population, blinding, controls, assignment, periods, committees, and interim analyses as relevant. This page concerns design reporting inside an ICH E3 CSR, not how to place a study-design label in an article title or how to write a protocol prospectively.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionWriting & Style
Quick answer
The CSR study-design section describes how the trial was configured and conducted so a reviewer can understand the comparison, assignment, timing, and major design features.
Key details
Core IssueICH E3 section 9.1 asks for a clear description of the overall study design and plan, including treatments, population, blinding, controls, assignment, periods, committees, and interim analyses as relevant.
Registerscholarly, professional, or research/report writing
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
This page concerns design reporting inside an ICH E3 CSR, not how to place a study-design label in an article title or how to write a protocol prospectively.
Further guidance
Content
Describe the overall configuration clearly and use charts or diagrams where useful; cover the design elements that are relevant to the particular study rather than forcing every possible item into every report.
Purpose
The CSR study-design section describes how the trial was configured and conducted so a reviewer can understand the comparison, assignment, timing, and major design features.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
ICH E3 section 12.4.1 points to a by-patient listing of abnormal laboratory values in section 14.3.4 and distinguishes that safety display from the broader listing of individual laboratory measurements. This page is about the dedicated abnormal-value listing under ICH E3 14.3.4; it is distinct from the full individual-measurement appendix under 16.2.8 and from analytical discussion in section 12.4.2.
ICH E3 section 11.4.2.7 identifies special efficacy-analysis considerations for active-control studies intended to support equivalence. This is a CSR efficacy-results reporting issue for active-control equivalence designs; it does not define a universal equivalence margin or replace protocol-level design justification.
ICH E3 section 11.4.2.1 calls for covariate or prognostic-factor selection and adjustment to be explained, including adjustment methods, analysis results, supportive statistical documentation, and differences from planned analyses when relevant. This results-stage statistical issue is narrower than the general statistical-methods section and should not be used as a substitute for documenting the full analysis plan.
ICH E3 places patient-level adverse-event listings in the report appendices and calls for listings that identify individual patients and relevant event details supporting review. A listing is not the same as a summary adverse-event table or a selected patient narrative; each serves a different level of safety reporting.
ICH E3 section 12.3.3 calls for analysis and discussion across deaths, other serious adverse events, and other significant adverse events after the relevant case listings and narratives. This is an interpretive synthesis, not a duplicate death/serious-event listing or a replacement for individual patient narratives.
ICH E3 section 12.2.3 calls for analysis of adverse events beyond their tabular display, focusing on patterns important to safety interpretation. Do not treat the analysis as a substitute for the event display or patient-level listing, and do not imply causality beyond what the study evidence supports.
ICH E3 emphasizes that analyses, tables, and figures should clearly identify the set of patients from which the displayed result was generated. This is a results-display identification rule, not a substitute for prospectively defining analysis populations in a protocol or statistical analysis plan.
ICH E3 section 9.5.2 calls for discussion of the appropriateness, reliability, or relevance of measurements used to assess efficacy and safety when explanation is needed. This subsection justifies or qualifies measurement choices; it does not replace the section that defines the variables, methods, and timing of assessments.
