The editorial demonstrates changes in the number and subject matter of papers dealing with issues related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which were published in Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine (ACEM) during 3 years of the pandemic (2020-2022).

Various guidelines for authors of research papers and the checklists that often accompany these statements play an important role in the creation of carefully written scientific papers -for authors, they serve as tools to ensure the correct structure and content of the manuscript, increasing the chances that a paper will be published in a journal with a high rejection rate. The aim of this editorial is to provide a concise outline of the checklists most frequently used to guide the structuring of papers published in Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine, and to support current and prospective authors of this journal in choosing a checklist for their manuscript.The EQUATOR website is presented as a useful tool in choosing a checklist: https://www.equator-network.org/. Then, 8 checklists that are most popular among authors who publish their work in Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine are outlined: STROBE -for observational studies; ARRIVE -for any area of bioscience research using laboratory animals; CASP -for qualitative studies; CONSORT -for parallel group randomized trials; PRISMA -for all reviews and meta-analyses; SQUIRE -for studies on quality improvement in healthcare; STARD -for diagnostic accuracy studies; REMARK -for tumor marker prognostic studies. Each of the 8 presented checklists is discussed in a following order: 1) the name of the checklist is explained; 2) the type of articles to which it is intended is pointed out; 3) the structure of the checklist is explained; 4) if there are any extensions of the presented checklist for specific subtypes of papers, they are listed; 5) the most important literature on the presented checklist is provided.As a take-home message, basic tips for choosing a checklist are formulated. Finally, examples of papers adhering to each discussed checklist are provided.