Reporting Guidelines for Music-Based Interventions: The Importance of Reporting Quality to Advances in Arts and Health Research

Public interest and research into how music and the arts benefit our health and well-being has grown significantly, along with initiatives to advance the quality and rigor of these scientific studies. The complexity of the arts introduces unique challenges to their study This article highlights recent initiatives to advance the scientific rigor of music-based intervention trials, with specific emphasis on development and validation of the 2025 “Reporting Guidelines for Music-Based Interventions” to improve the quality, transparency, and consistency of how music interventions are described in published research. This work also has the potential to inform research investigating other arts modalities.