ArticleBMC research notes2011
Common statistical and research design problems in manuscripts submitted to high-impact medical journals.
Article in BMC research notes, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Teaching students to R3eason, not merely to solve problem sets: The role of philosophy and visual data communication in accessible data science education.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- How to write statistical analysis section in medical research.Journal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research · 2022Article
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- Automated detection of over- and under-dispersion in baseline tables in randomised controlled trials.F1000Research · 2022Article
- Differential evolution and particle swarm optimization against COVID-19.Artificial intelligence review · 2022Article
- Incorporating professional recommendations into a graduate-level statistical consulting laboratory: A case study.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2020Article
- Learning gaps among statistical competencies for clinical and translational science learners.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2020Article
- How often do leading biomedical journals use statistical experts to evaluate statistical methods? The results of a survey.PloS one · 2020Article
- The Principles of Biomedical Scientific Writing: Materials and Methods.International journal of endocrinology and metabolism · 2019Review
- Top ten errors of statistical analysis in observational studies for cancer research.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2018Review
- The Importance of Statistical Competencies for Medical Research Learners.Journal of statistics education : an international journal on the teaching and learning of statistics · 2018Article
- Guidelines for standardizing and increasing the transparency in the reporting of biomedical research.Journal of thoracic disease · 2017Article
- A simulation based method for assessing the statistical significance of logistic regression models after common variable selection procedures.Communications in statistics: Simulation and computation · 2017Article
- Normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) modelling using spatial dose metrics and machine learning methods for severe acute oral mucositis resulting from head and neck radiotherapy.Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology · 2016Article
- Multiple imputation of multiple multi-item scales when a full imputation model is infeasible.BMC research notes · 2016Article
- The Value of theAmerican journal of robotic surgery · 2015Article
- Assessing statistical competencies in clinical and translational science education: one size does not fit all.Clinical and translational science · 2015Article
- Improving data and knowledge management to better integrate health care and research.Journal of internal medicine · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo assist educators and researchers in improving the quality of medical research, we surveyed the editors and statistical reviewers of high-impact medical journals to ascertain the most frequent and critical statistical errors in submitted manuscripts.
findingsThe Editors-in-Chief and statistical reviewers of the 38 medical journals with the highest impact factor in the 2007 Science Journal Citation Report and the 2007 Social Science Journal Citation Report were invited to complete an online survey about the statistical and design problems they most frequently found in manuscripts. Content analysis of the responses identified major issues. Editors and statistical reviewers (n = 25) from 20 journals responded. Respondents described problems that we classified into two, broad themes: A. statistical and sampling issues and B. inadequate reporting clarity or completeness. Problems included in the first theme were (1) inappropriate or incomplete analysis, including violations of model assumptions and analysis errors, (2) uninformed use of propensity scores, (3) failing to account for clustering in data analysis, (4) improperly addressing missing data, and (5) power/sample size concerns. Issues subsumed under the second theme were (1) Inadequate description of the methods and analysis and (2) Misstatement of results, including undue emphasis on p-values and incorrect inferences and interpretations.
conclusionsThe scientific quality of submitted manuscripts would increase if researchers addressed these common design, analytical, and reporting issues. Improving the application and presentation of quantitative methods in scholarly manuscripts is essential to advancing medical research.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.