Ten Common Statistical Errors and How to Avoid Them

SUMMARYConsidering and avoiding these 10 typical statistical pitfalls when submitting papers to this (or any other) journal will both improve the paper and hopefully increase the chances that it is accepted and published.

[1]  John K Marshall,et al.  Systematic Review of the Risk of Enteric Infection in Patients Taking Acid Suppression , 2007, The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

[2]  A. Gelman,et al.  The Difference Between “Significant” and “Not Significant” is not Itself Statistically Significant , 2006 .

[3]  Fiona Fidler,et al.  Statistical reform in medicine, psychology and ecology , 2004 .

[4]  J. Connor The Value of a p-Valueless Paper , 2004, The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

[5]  S. Goodman,et al.  Of P-values and Bayes: a modest proposal. , 2001, Epidemiology.

[6]  C. Mulrow,et al.  Current methods of the US Preventive Services Task Force: a review of the process. , 2001, American journal of preventive medicine.

[7]  D. Sackett,et al.  Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't , 1996, BMJ.

[8]  L F Burmeister,et al.  Proving the Null Hypothesis , 1992, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

[9]  M J Langman,et al.  Towards estimation and confidence intervals. , 1986, British medical journal.

[10]  D. Rubin,et al.  The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects , 1983 .

[11]  W C Blackwelder,et al.  "Proving the null hypothesis" in clinical trials. , 1981, Controlled clinical trials.

[12]  K J Rothman,et al.  A show of confidence. , 1978, The New England journal of medicine.

[13]  D. Rennie Vive la Différence (P<0.05) , 1978 .

[14]  M. S. Bartlett,et al.  Statistical methods and scientific inference. , 1957 .

[15]  N. Talley,et al.  American Journal of Gastroenterology 2004: A New Look, Editorial Team, and Publishers , 2004, American Journal of Gastroenterology.

[16]  E. Blackstone Comparing apples and oranges. , 2002, The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

[17]  J. Bartko Proving the null hypothesis. , 1991 .