title: The principle of randomization in scientific research.
abstract: Scientific research design includes specialty design and statistics design which can be subdivided into experimental design, clinical trial design and survey design. Usually, statistics textbooks introduce the core aspects of experimental design as the three key elements, the four principles and the design types, which run through the whole scientific research design and determine the overall success of the research. This article discusses the principle of randomization, which is one of the four principles, and focuses on the following two issues--the definition and function of randomization and the real life examples which go against the randomization principle, thereby demonstrating that strict adherence to the randomization principle leads to meaningful and valuable scientific research.
authors.affiliation: Consulting Center of Biomedical Statistics, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing 100850, China. lphu812@sina.com
authors.forename: Liang-ping
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Xiao-lei
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D011897:Random Allocation; D012107:Research Design