# Title Page

## Title

Efficacy of BCG Vaccination Against Tuberculosis: A Random-Effects Meta-Analysis of 13 Randomized Trials

## Running title

BCG vaccine and tuberculosis: a meta-analysis

## Authors

\- Demonstration Author [UNVERIFIED]

## Affiliations

\- Department of Demonstration, Institution [UNVERIFIED]

## Corresponding author

Demonstration Author [UNVERIFIED]

## Article type

Meta-analysis (systematic review of interventions)

## Reporting guideline

PRISMA 2020

## Word counts

- Abstract: 295 words (structured: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion)
- Body (Introduction through Discussion): 1,604 words
- Tables: 1 (Table 1)
- Figures: 3 (PRISMA flow, forest plot, funnel plot)
- References: placeholders — see note below

## Funding

[UNVERIFIED — to be supplied by the senior/corresponding author]

## Conflicts of interest

[UNVERIFIED — none declared in this demonstration]

## Data availability

The trial-level data are the canonical, openly available BCG vaccine dataset
(`dat.bcg`, 13 randomized trials) distributed with the metafor R package. The
analysis dataset (`data/dat_bcg.csv`), analysis scripts, result tables, and
figures generated for this manuscript are available in the demonstration package.

## AI-assisted writing disclosure

This manuscript was produced as a clean-room demonstration of the medsci-skills v3.7.0
pipeline. An artificial intelligence language model, Claude (Opus 4.8, Anthropic), accessed
via the Claude Code command-line interface in June 2026, was used to assist with manuscript
drafting, section structuring, and internal consistency checking of reported statistics. All
statistical results were generated by executing R code (metafor 4.8.0, meta 8.2.1) and were
read directly from the resulting data files; the AI tool did not generate any numerical
result. All content was reviewed and is the responsibility of the authors. The AI tool was not
listed as an author. Generative AI was not used to create, modify, or alter any image, figure,
or table.

## Demonstration note

This is a methods demonstration, not a clinical systematic review. The 13 included randomized
trials and all of their event counts are the genuine published BCG vaccine trial data. The
upstream record counts in the PRISMA study-selection diagram (Figure 1) are illustrative of a
typical identification-and-screening cascade for this corpus and are not the yield of a new
database search. In-text references are left as [UNVERIFIED] placeholders; a production
manuscript would resolve these through the reference-manager workflow before submission.