Monthly Archives: November 2017

Reproducible research practices are underused in systematic reviews of biomedical interventions

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Researchers are increasingly encouraged to implement reproducible research practices in their work. These practices include describing the data collected and used for analysis in detail, clearly reporting the analysis method and results, and sharing the dataset and statistical or analysis code. To determine how well reproducible research practices are implemented, Page and colleagues (2017) investigated their implementation in systematic reviews

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False-positive findings and how to minimize them

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As scientists we collect data and look for patterns or differences. Because populations display variation and we are unable to collect data from all members of a population, statistical results will always possess a level of uncertainty. For example, it is common to set alpha to 0.05. This implies that if there is no difference or effect, there is a

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The Critical thinking and Appraisal Resource library (CARL) to understand and assess treatment claims

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Every day, we are confronted by claims about effects of treatments, many of which are not supported by evidence and are misleading. It is easy to overestimate the benefits of treatments and to underestimate their potential risks, without knowing how to accurately assess claims about treatments. To address these problems, Castle and colleagues developed the Critical thinking and Appraisal Resource

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