Practical recommendations for statistical analysis and data presentation in Biochemia Medica journal

Abstract

The aim of this article is to highlight practical recommendations based on our experience as reviewers and journal editors and refer to some most common mistakes in manuscripts submitted to Biochemia Medica. One of the most important parts of the article is the Abstract. Authors quite often forget that Abstract is sometimes the fi rst (and only) part of the article read by the readers. The article Abstract must therefore be comprehensive and provide key results of your work. Problematic part of the article, also often neglected by authors is the subheading Statistical analysis, within Materials and methods, where authors must explain which statistical tests were used in their data analysis and the rationale for using those tests. They also need to make sure that all tests used are listed under Statistical analysis section, as well as that all tests listed are indeed used in the study. When writing Results section there are several key points to keep in mind, such as: are results presented with adequate precision and accurately; is descriptive analysis appropriate; is the measure of confi dence provided for all estimates; if necessary and applicable, are correct statistical tests used for analysis; is P value provided for all tests, etc. Especially important is not to make any conclusions on the causal relationship unless the study is an experiment or clinical trial. We believe that the use of the proposed checklist might increase the quality of the submitted work and speed up the peer-review and publication process for published articles.

Liquid citrate acidification introduces significant glucose bias and leads to misclassification of patients with diabetes

“…As all data showed normal distribution the results were presented as mean±standard deviation (SD) [24]. Repeated measures ANOVA and pairwise comparisons using the Bonferroni correction were used to test the difference between baseline glucose concentrations measured in serum, NaF/KOx and Glucomedics, and reference (LiH) sample; as well as to test differences in serial glucose concentrations performed at different time points.…”

Plasma endothelin-1 level, measured glomerular filtration rate and effective renal plasma flow in diabetic nephropathy

“…23 The data were presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) or median and interquartile range for continuous variables. Categorical data were summarized as numbers and percentages.…”

The most common nonconformities encountered during the assessments of medical laboratories in Hong Kong using ISO 15189 as accreditation criteria

“…Apart from the number of significant NC reported from the initial assessments of the 27 laboratories assessed in between 2004 and 2006 was not distributed normally, the other parameters were distributed normally. Selection of appropriate statistical methods was based on a recent publication by Simundic AM (8). Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test was used to analyze if there was any significant differences between the performance of the 27 laboratories in terms of no.…”

“…Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test was used to analyze if there was any significant differences between the performance of the 27 laboratories in terms of no. of NCs per laboratory encountered in their initial assessments and their second reassessments (8). P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.…”