Mark Fenton writes:
>Much of the statistics are presented confusingly. For
>example, in graphs which don't say anything and don't
>allow you to extract data from them; in trials where
>the drop out rate is greater than 50% and then don't
>report on which group they were in; trials which don't
>report on patients they randomised. I think what I'm
>getting at is any confusion is not all yours. Trialist's
>and Journals print articles which are confusing, (albeit
>some are improving)
In a journal club article that I recently read, I noticed some similar
problems.
1. Numbers which appear in the abstract, but not in the paper itself.
2. Several graphs of the same outcome variable, but with different scaling
on each graph. In consecutive graphs of the same element, 10% represented
8.7 cm then 10.7 cm, then 9.7 cm and finally 6.4 cm.
3. A discussion of a table of numbers where some of the numbers discussed
were not in the table itself. The text discusses percentages for specific
groups and for all subjects combined and there was no "total" column in the
table.
In another paper, the text claims that there were 33,000 subjects in a
certain group, and the graph claims that there were 9,725 (!) subjects in
that group.
These are nitpicks in otherwise well written articles, and perhaps some of
this is caused by space limitations and last minute changes.
Most of the things I mention might be classified under the topic of
inconsistent presentation. When I see an inconsistency, it forces me to
re-read the paper to make sure that I am not missing or misinterpreting
things.
I was wondering if others have good examples of inconsistent presentation.
The actual articles themselves are not too important. I am more interested
in developing a checklist of commonly occurring inconsistencies in the
presentation of research results.
I hope this is not too far off-topic. If you send me examples privately, I
will summarize them for this list.
Steve Simon, [log in to unmask], Standard Disclaimer.
STATS - Steve's Attempt to Teach Statistics: http://www.cmh.edu/stats
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