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For a proper interpretation of your
data, design your study carefully. There are excellent books to help you design
your study, determine the number of subjects in your study, selection of these
subjects, randomization, etc. Once the data are collected, proper statistical
analysis is important for interpretation of the data. There are many web sites
on the Internet that provide excellent review of the statistical methods, and
some even help you by analyzing such data or offer several examples.
The following web sites provide excellent
description of the statistical methods:
- Statistics:
a web site maintained by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Australia.
- SurfStat Australia:
offers an extensive glossary, interactive exercises, demonstrating statistical
concepts through dynamic graphics. The site is maintained by the Australian National University.
- STEPS:
Statistical Education through Problem Solving is provided
by nine departments in seven universities throughout England.
- HyperStat:
An online introductory-level hypertext statistics book.
- The Mesa Cohort
A basic statistics course.
- Virtual
Anesthesia Book: Provides a comprehensive list of statistical resources on
the web.
When writing your manuscript, describe
the statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with
access to the original data to verify the reported results.
- Avoid sole reliance
on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P values, which fails to
convey important quantitative information.
- Give details about
randomization.
- Describe the methods
for and success of any blinding of observations.
- References for study
design and statistical methods should be to standard works (with pages stated)
when possible rather than to papers in which the designs or methods were originally
reported.
- Specify any general-use
computer programs used.
- Put general description
of methods in the Methods.
- Avoid nontechnical
uses of technical terms in statistics, such as "random" (which implies a randomizing
device), "normal," "significant correlations," and "sample." Define statistical
terms, abbreviations, and most symbols.
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