However, studies of the Journal of the American Medical Association and the British Medical Journal provide compelling evidence that fundamental changes in the types of figures that scientists use are needed. Figures are critically important because they often show the data that support key findings. The distribution of figure types differed significantly between studies that performed only parametric analyses and studies that performed both parametric and nonparametric analyses ( p < 0.001), and between studies that performed both types of analyses and studies that performed only nonparametric analyses ( p < 0.001).ĭata presentation is the foundation of our collective scientific knowledge, as readers’ understanding of a dataset is generally limited to what the authors present in their publications. We performed ordinal logistic regression, with analysis type and figure type both classified as ordinal variables. Panel d: The types of figures that are selected depend on the type of statistical analysis that is performed. Seventeen studies were excluded from this analysis as sample size was not reported ( n = 614). Showing these outliers would make the box plots impossible to see. The maximum values for minimum and maximum sample size per group were 593 and 2,192, respectively. Note that a few very high outliers are not shown ( n = 8 for minimum sample size n = 7 for maximum sample size). Whiskers show the furthest point that is within 1.5 times the interquartile range. The box shows the median and interquartile range. Panel c: Box plots show the minimum and maximum sample sizes for any group presented in a figure. Panel a: Bar graphs and other figures that typically show mean and SE or mean and SD were strongly preferred to figures that provide detailed information about the distribution of the data (scatterplots, box plots, and histograms). S2 Fig: Figure types, sample sizes, and statistical analysis. Seven of the top 20 physiology journals are published by the American Physiological Society (APS), which specifies that outcome data should be presented in figures rather than in tables whenever possible. Abbreviations: APS, American Physiological Society. Table D in S1 Text: Relationship between journal affiliation and the use of histograms and line graphs/point and error bars plots. Human studies included human participants, tissues, cells or cell lines. Nonhuman studies did not include human participants, tissues, cells or cell lines. Table C in S1 Text: Relationship between journal affiliation and the use of bar graphs and univariate scatterplots. The remaining articles did not specifically state whether these assumptions were tested. *n (%) of 493 articles which performed parametric analyses. Table B in S1 Text: Most studies performed parametric analyses. Abbreviations: AJP, American Journal of Physiology APS, American Physiological Society. reviews, editorials, perspectives, commentaries, letters to the editor, short communications, etc.). Articles that were not full length original research articles were excluded after screening (i.e. Journals are organized by 2012 impact factor. Values are n, or n (% of articles reviewed that were eligible and included in the analysis). Table A in S1 Text: The number of articles examined by journal. This file contains the methods and results for the systematic review, including Table A in S1 Text, Table B in S1 Text, Table C in S1 Text and Table D in S1 Text. S1 Text: Supplemental methods and results.
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