title: Statistics in medical journals: developments in the 1980s.
abstract: This paper reviews changes in the use of statistics in medical journals during the 1980s. Aspects considered are research design, statistical analysis, the presentation of results, medical journal policy (including statistical refereeing), and the misuse of statistics. Despite some notable successes, the misuse of statistics in medical papers remains common.
authors.affiliation: Medical Statistics Laboratory, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, U.K.
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Altman
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000639:trends*; D011643:Publishing / Q000639:trends; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000639:trends*