Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35818973›Full record

ArticleBioinformatics (Oxford, England)2022

Avoiding C-hacking when evaluating survival distribution predictions with discrimination measures.

Raphael Sonabend, Andreas Bender, Sebastian Vollmer

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Bioinformatics (Oxford, England), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–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

6 citing papers in PubMed.

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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

3 authors.

Raphael SonabendDepartment of Computer Science, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-9225-4654
Andreas BenderDepartment of Statistics, LMU Munich, 80539 Bavaria, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-5628-8611
Sebastian VollmerDepartment of Computer Science, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Funding

BMBF 01IS18036AGerman Federal Ministry of Education and Research
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

motivationIn this article, we consider how to evaluate survival distribution predictions with measures of discrimination. This is non-trivial as discrimination measures are the most commonly used in survival analysis and yet there is no clear method to derive a risk prediction from a distribution prediction. We survey methods proposed in literature and software and consider their respective advantages and disadvantages.

resultsWhilst distributions are frequently evaluated by discrimination measures, we find that the method for doing so is rarely described in the literature and often leads to unfair comparisons or 'C-hacking'. We demonstrate by example how simple it can be to manipulate results and use this to argue for better reporting guidelines and transparency in the literature. We recommend that machine learning survival analysis software implements clear transformations between distribution and risk predictions in order to allow more transparent and accessible model evaluation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The code used in the final experiment is available at https://github.com/RaphaelS1/distribution_discrimination.

Indexed as

Machine LearningSoftwarePublications

Identifiers

PMID35818973
PMCPMC9438958

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.