[Review of research design and statistical methods in Chinese Journal of Cardiology].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the research design and the use of statistical methods in Chinese Journal of Cardiology.


METHODS
Peer through the research design and statistical methods in all of the original papers in Chinese Journal of Cardiology from December 2007 to November 2008.


RESULTS
The most frequently used research designs are cross-sectional design (34%), prospective design (21%) and experimental design (25%). In all of the articles, 49 (25%) use wrong statistical methods, 29 (15%) lack some sort of statistic analysis, 23 (12%) have inconsistencies in description of methods. There are significant differences between different statistical methods (P < 0.001). The correction rates of multifactor analysis were low and repeated measurement datas were not used repeated measurement analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
Many problems exist in Chinese Journal of Cardiology. Better research design and correct use of statistical methods are still needed. More strict review by statistician and epidemiologist is also required to improve the literature qualities.
Zhang
Li-jun
LJ
School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Yu
Jin-ming
JM
D002309:Cardiology; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*