Webinar: A practical introduction to statistical reviewing for medical journals
Webinar: A practical introduction to statistical reviewing for medical journals
Papers used in the practical exercise
Voggenreiter G, Aufmkolk M, Stiletto RJ, Baacke MG, Waydhas C, Ose C, Bock E, Gotzen L, Obertacke U, Nast-Kolb D.
Prone positioning improves oxygenation in post-traumatic lung injury–a prospective randomized trial.
J Trauma. 2005 Aug;59(2):333-41
doi: 10.1097/01.ta.0000179952.95921.49. PMID: 16294072.
Joint event: Improving Statistical Literacy and Career Development Working Groups, NIHR Statistics Group
Monday 20th January 2025 9.30am-12pm
About the webinar
In this interactive webinar, we will provide an overview of how to conduct a statistical review for a general medical journal. We will also provide hands-on experience of reviewing some example journal articles, allowing opportunities for participants to interact with more experienced statistical reviewers.
Providing statistical reviews for medical journals can be a rewarding experience; as well as gaining knowledge in a variety of clinical areas, being able to include statistical reviewer roles on your CV can aid career development. There is currently little formal training for early to mid career researchers on how to conduct a statistical review. The focus of this webinar will be on reviewing the statistical aspects of papers submitted to medical journals but will also cover tips that will be relevant to the non-statistical aspects. Pre-workshop reading material will be provided in preparation for the practical aspects of the webinar.
Who is it for?
- Early / mid-career researchers with statistical training.
- Those working in medical statistics or data science who are interested in statistical reviewing for a medical journal.
- Those with no or little experience of statistical reviewing.
Programme
09:30 – 09.40: Introduction – Derrick Bennett (University of Oxford)
SESSION 1 – Chaired by Jess Kendall (University of Leeds) and Amina Tran (Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust)
09:40 – 09:50: Why be a statistical reviewer? – Julie Morris (formerly University of Manchester)
09:50 – 10:00: How to review a paper from a statistical viewpoint – Andy Vail (University of Manchester)
10:00 – 10:10: Considerations for epidemiological papers – Paula Dhiman(University of Oxford)
10:10 – 10:20: Considerations for trial papers – Gordon Prescott (University of Central Lancashire)
10:20 – 10:30: First experiences of statistical reviewing – Jen Lewis (University of Sheffield)
10:30 – 10:45: Panel discussion (All five speakers)
10:45 – 11:00: BREAK
SESSION 2 – Chaired by Jamie Sergeant (University of Manchester)
11:00 – 11:45: Practical exercise – Review a paper in five breakout groups, facilitated by Ashma Krishnan (University of Manchester), Antonia Marsden (University of Manchester), Clare Robinson (Queen Mary University of London), Sam Leary (University of Bristol), Gordon Prescott (University of Central Lancashire)
11:45 – 12:00: Final feedback – Facilitator from each of the breakout groups
Registration is now closed
PPI for methodological research workshop
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Improving statistical literacy
We are a group of statisticians from academia, health trusts and industry. The key aims of this working group are:
- To enhance the communication of statistics and improve statistical literacy throughout the NIHR.
- To bring together a network of interested individuals.
Background
There is evidence of suboptimal statistics within medical research and evidence also that this can impact upon patients. There is evidence of delays in embracing novel statistical methodology and this too can impact upon patients in that the newer methods might deliver results with fewer patients and at a faster rate.
Useful Links
Features a range of learning resources and workshops on statistics (among many other topics). A simple search e.g., ‘statistics’ should bring up relevant materials. A number of these are open access.
- Pilot and Feasibility studies website
- Students 4 Best Evidence – Evidence Based Nursing Resources
- Students 4 Best Evidence (cochrane.org)
- Students 4 Best Evidence – Evidence-based nursing resources (cochrane.org)
- What is the difference between missing completely at random and missing at random?
“I finally understand the difference between MCAR and MAR after reading this paper! The layout is different to anything I’ve seen in the published literature which makes it very easy to read and approachable.”
For researchers in eyes and vision, there is the series that has been put together by the Ophthalmic Statistics group
Presentations
- Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for statisticians by Deborah Stocken
- PPI for Methods Research by Laura Flight
Books
- An Introduction to Medical Statistics by Martin Bland
“Good introductory text – accompanying workbook is great and contains answers.”
- Essential Medical Statistics (Second edition), by Betty Kirkwood and Jonathan A.C. Sterne
“Good introductory text – helpful for those who don’t like mathematical formulas.”
- Medical Statistics at a Glance, Second edition by Aviva Petrie and Caroline Sabin
“Good introductory text and the flowchart at the back of the book is very helpful!”
- Oxford Handbook of Medical Statistics by Janet Peacock and Philip Peacock
“Excellent book covering a wide variety of topics. It’s always the first book I pick up when I want to double check something.”
- Practical Statistics for Medical Research by Doug Altman
- Statistical Questions in Evidence Based Medicine by Janet Peacock and Martin Bland
“Excellent book that encourages the reader to critically appraise published papers and contains answers to the questions.
It’s also a good revision tool.”
- Know Your Chances: Understanding Health Statistics by Steven Woloshin, Lisa M. Schwartz, and H. Gilbert Welch.
“A book about how to understand medical health information through statistics.”
Resources for Statisticians
Useful Links
- Group-Based trajectory modeling in clinical research by Nagin & Odgers – Annual Review of Clinical Psychology
“Explains latent class trajectory analysis from first principles and includes relevant published examples.”
“Contains excellent annotated output, along with the relevant code, for various statistical techniques.
The annotated output comes from a variety of statistical analysis software such as Stata, SAS, SPSS, Mplus and R.”
Presentations
- Careful with causal inference by Richard Emsley
- Diagnostic/Prognostic Models by Sue Mallett, Alice Sitch & Christina Easter
- NIHR Academy & role of NIHR Statistics Group by David E Jones
Books
- Discovering Structural Equation Modeling
“A good first guide into the world of Structural equation Modelling. Should ideally be used in conjunction with another introductory text as its focus is applying the techniques.”
- Multilevel and longitudinal modelling using Stata (Volumes I and II, Third Edition) – by Sophia Rabe-Hesketh & Anders Skrondal
“A great text for explaining hierarchical modelling theory, as well as thorough interpretation of the code and output.”
- Negative Binomial Regression (Second edition), by Joseph M. Hilbe
“Best text for negative binomial regression it includes detailed appendices which contain excellent interpretation of interactions.”
Contact us
Please get in touch if you come across a helpful statistical resource or if you would like to join our group, please email statisticsgroup@nihr.ac.uk
Statistical literacy in heath research in the age of machine learning and artificial intelligence
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