ArticleAmerican journal of public health2018
The C-Word: Scientific Euphemisms Do Not Improve Causal Inference From Observational Data.
Article in American journal of public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 217 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
217 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Estimating Causal Effects of Third-Stage Management on Postpartum Haemorrhage in a Midwifery Context: An Evidence Synthesis Approach for Constructing Directed Acyclic Graphs.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2026Pooled it
- Incidence of and risk factors for lumbar disc herniation with radiculopathy in adults: a systematic review.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Pooled it
- Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of prenatal vitamin D insufficiency and cord blood DNA methylation.Epigenetics · 2024Pooled it
- Inconsistent values and algorithmic fairness: a review of organ allocation priority systems in the United States.BMC medical ethics · 2024Pooled it
- Directed acyclic graphs in perioperative observational research-A systematic review and critique against best practice recommendations.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- E-cigarette use and respiratory disorders: an integrative review of converging evidence from epidemiological and laboratory studies.The European respiratory journal · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Associated-Factor Studies in Biomedical Research: Foundations, Limitations, and Criteria for Appropriate Use.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Potential of Microbiota-Modulating Dietary Strategies in Gallstone Prevention: Evidence from 2 Large Population- Based Cohorts.The Turkish journal of gastroenterology : the official journal of Turkish Society of Gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Causal Inference in Clinical Research: A Primer.Journal of periodontal research · 2026Review
- Frameworks and methods for estimating the causal effect of clinical treatment in orthopaedics: a scoping review.EFORT open reviews · 2026Review
- CACE-MM: using mixed methods to strengthen causal inference in medicine and public health.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Development and external validation of the HCH and HPMS prognostic indices for sepsis: a retrospective model development study using a Multi-Objective Non-Newtonian Fluid optimization algorithm.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- Opportunities and pitfalls of data contextualization in neuroimaging.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Article
- Income, food expenditure shares, and severe food insecurity in Australia across 21 waves of HILDA.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Target trial emulation: bridging observational studies and randomized trials for health decision-making.Journal of comparative effectiveness research · 2026Article
- Causal Inference Tools for Pharmacovigilance: Using Causal Graphs to Identify and Address Biases in Disproportionality Analysis.Drug safety · 2026Article
- Causal Discovery in Observational Medical Research: Scoping Review.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- Article
157 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Causal inference is a core task of science. However, authors and editors often refrain from explicitly acknowledging the causal goal of research projects; they refer to causal effect estimates as associational estimates. This commentary argues that using the term "causal" is necessary to improve the quality of observational research. Specifically, being explicit about the causal objective of a study reduces ambiguity in the scientific question, errors in the data analysis, and excesses in the interpretation of the results.
Indexed as
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.