Customer Reviews

How to Report Statistics in Medicine: Annotated Guidelines for Authors, Editors and Reviewers (Acp Information Technology Series)

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Book Review of " How to Report Statistics in Medicine"

The book " How to Report Statistics in Medicine" is written by Tom Lang and Michelle Secic in 1997, published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). Just as Edward J. Huth wrote in his foreword, " ........... physician who knows nothing about statistical methods expect to find in reports of clinical trials of drugs statistical evidence ................." "Unfortunately, what passed before our eyes as statistical analysis and reporting does not always represent the proper use of statistical methods or the clear and adequate reporting of statistical findings..., and the review system is not always infallible in judging statistical evidence and how it is presented." "Up until now, authors have had available little published guidance in how to report most effectively their statistical data." Under all this circumstances, the book came into being, aiming to bring valuable specific and detailed help to authors who wish to make their papers as statistically convincing as possible. In fact, this book is also written for medical writers and editors, authors reporting basic or clinical research, clinicians, residents, and students in all areas of medicine and health science, including nursing and allied health professionals. The first author of the book, Tom Lang, is Manager of Medical Editing Services at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where he supervises the editing of scientific manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. The second author of the book, Michelle Secic, is the Senior Biostatistician in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she assists researchers in designing, analyzing, and interpreting medical research studies.

Here are some of the strengths and weakness of the book:

1. There are basically 4 major parts in the book: annotated guidelines to for reporting statistical information, guide to statistical terms and tests, an uninitiated, reference list of the guidelines, and 4 useful appendices. The guidelines are presented in very clear and easy-to -find way, marked by different signs and type fonts in alphabetical order. To me, part two is especially useful. Every time I do not know the exact meaning of a specific term in statistics, I can go directly to this part and look at the explanation and get a better idea. For example, the term "intention-to-treat analysis" is right there on page 262.

2. In part 4 of the book, the appendix on " Rules for Presenting Numbers in Text" provides useful information, since numbers are most commonly used in reporting results.

3. Part 1 is the key part of the book, which contains many specific topics on reporting statistics. For example, after looking through Section 6 of Part 1, "Testing for Relationships: Reporting Associations and Correlation Analysis", I know the function of correlation matrix and how to interpret different correlation values, and then check whether the author has come to a positive conclusion or not. The same is true of the knowledge about 95% CI, with which I may help medical researchers come to a more convincing conclusion.

4. This book is very carefully proofread and so far I have not found any typing error.

5. One weakness of the book is, I think, that it would probably be better for the book to come up with some exercises or a separate workbook, providing any one who wants to learn from this book some chances of practice. Here what I mean by exercise is not how to calculate a specific statistical value, and I am referring to the exercises that help readers to think of the correct report of statistics and to what extent they

6. Another minor limitation of the book is that it is too heavy to take as a portable reference book. If it was printed on thinner paper, I would like it even better.

Since I am not a statistician, but a writer, I have been searching for a basic biostatistical textbook from which I could absorb just enough information to help me understand the statistical design of clinical trials, and to help focus and sharpen my reporting of statistical data. I now have a collection of biostatistical texts-I can open a used bookshop-none of which serve my needs. Although they all begin with a light approach-I should have browsed deeper through them in the bookstore-they soon get lost in deep statistical and mathematical minutia. Now, Lang and Secic, in "How to Report Statistics in Medicine: Annotated Guidelines for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers," have achieved what others have not been able to-explain how to report statistical data AND the meaning of statistical tests, etc. They accomplish this without bombastic lectures and without the mathematical nuisances that get in the way of a non-statistician or someone who simply does not care about the derivation of statistical formulae. This will be my medical writing bible for years to come. My only complaint is that it should have been sold in hardcover-it will soon wear-out from all the use!

As a medical writer and editor at The Cleveland Clinic, Thomas A. Lang found that the lack of clear understanding of statistics by non-statisticians affected the clarity of their writing. Physicians had the same problem while writing up their research papers for publication. Lang perceived a need among medical and science writers to understand just enough of biostatistics to make them better writers and editors without becoming statisticians themselves. He devised workshops that were conducted by the American Medical Writers Association which were enormously successful. The logical next step was to write this book based on the valuable teaching experience and feedback he got at those courses. In other words, this is a book that wasn't written in a vacuum but is the result of a perceived need, and the author's experience in meeting that need. Co-author Michelle Secic has also contributed with her expertise, making it a valuable book for people in this field.

The conclusion to a review published in the March 1998 issue of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, one of the most influential statistics journals in the world:

"Lang and Secic do a masterly job of taking a subject that intimidates (and terrorizes, to some extent) many people and sweetening it so that it is palatable. This book should be on every medical writer's and editor's desk (and many authors would benefit by it, too) to be read from cover to cover and used as a reference. I also recommend that it be used as a text for journalism students and science writers, or by anyone who does not plan to become a statistician yet needs to be able to interpret and report statistics. My thanks to the authors for producing an outstanding guide ... They have performed a public service for us, for the general public, and for science."

Nadine W. Martin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The material is presented in a way that will help medical writers understand clinical trials more fully, and answer questions that come while writing.

I found this book unexpectedly useful, complete and easy to read. It contains the kind of statistical knowledge that medical people do like to see. It is not another textbook that reviews medical statistics. However it provides the clues to understand and classify all these statistical jargon and processes that cause difficulties to eveybody that loves to handle statistics himself.I fully recommend it

This is the best reference book I have found on the topic of how to present data for manuscripts to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals. It is easy to use, super easy to understand, and covers all elements of the manuscript preparation process as far as data representation is concerned. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a book on the subject. It includes many examples of data tables, figures, and even examples of how to write up titles and data descriptions.

I am glad to read this book before I prepared for my statistical clinical studies. This book could give you basic ideas, but you need to discuss with your collegues or use more advanced books to improve further.

This is a great text for those new to writing for publication in medical and scientific journals. This provides insite on what information should be included in an article for submission.

This was the textbook for my biostatistics class. Perhaps it was just the wrong choice for the class, but as a junior medical writer I found it very difficult to use.

First, the "checklist" format results in a lot of redundancy across chapters. The basic IMRD structure applies to all medical publications, but the book repeats steps over and over again, which takes up a lot of space with information that anyone with basic writing skills should already know.

In addition, because there is so much variation and complexity in clinical trials, results will rarely fit into one nice category for reporting. To use this book, you would have to refer to multiple chapters and dig through the redundant steps (see above) to find what you need. Even then you may not find it, because statistical tests and concepts are scattered across chapters.

The glossary in the back of the book is more helpful in understanding concepts and how to apply them, but it makes me wonder why they didn't just include the information as part of the text? It would have been more efficient and user-friendly to describe the concepts and tests and how to apply them to publications, rather than the other way around.

There is some useful information here, but as a new writer, this book will not be my first choice for guidance on how to write a medical publication.