Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33975646›Full record

ArticleGenome biology2021

On the optimistic performance evaluation of newly introduced bioinformatic methods.

Stefan Buchka, Alexander Hapfelmeier, Paul P Gardner, Rory Wilson, Anne-Laure Boulesteix

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Genome biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Stefan BuchkaInstitute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, LMU, Munich, Germany.
Alexander HapfelmeierInstitute of Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, TUM, Munich, Germany.
Paul P GardnerDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Otago, New Zealand.
Rory Wilson *Research Unit Molecular Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.
Anne-Laure Boulesteix *Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, LMU, Munich, Germany. boulesteix@ibe.med.uni-muenchen.de.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Most research articles presenting new data analysis methods claim that "the new method performs better than existing methods," but the veracity of such statements is questionable. Our manuscript discusses and illustrates consequences of the optimistic bias occurring during the evaluation of novel data analysis methods, that is, all biases resulting from, for example, selection of datasets or competing methods, better ability to fix bugs in a preferred method, and selective reporting of method variants. We quantitatively investigate this bias using an example from epigenetic analysis: normalization methods for data generated by the Illumina HumanMethylation450K BeadChip microarray.

Indexed as

AuthorshipBiasComputational BiologyDatabases, GeneticBenchmarkingIllumina HumanMethylation450K BeadChipNeutral comparison studyNormalizationOptimistic bias

Identifiers

PMID33975646
PMCPMC8111726

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.