Current Situation, Problems And Countermeasure Of Application Of Statistics In Three Medical Journals

Objective: To find out the common statistical problems appeared in the journals anddiscrepancy in research ability among other medical major journals by analyzing the statisticsapplication of thesis in the journal of Xinjiang Medical University (Journal A) for the past10years andtwo other medical major journals (Journal B, Journal C) which published during2009-2011. The studyaims to come up with some useful countermeasure to help the current situation.Methods: The objectsof this study are The Journal of Xinjiang Medical University which published in2002-2011and the twoother major journals which published in2009-2011. We randomly selected100treaties among the threemajor journals; studied and classified them by the reference type, the used statistical software,statistical inference methods, research design, and statistical design, statistical description, andstatistical inference, common flaws in result explanation and errors classification statistics. Meanwhile,the application of statistical methods and common statistical problems were analyzed. At the end,finding out what other factors would affect the statistical application of the research by looking at thediscrepancy in authors’(authors from year2002-2005,2009-2008,2009-2011) background(includingtheir qualification, job title and the funding resources).Results:(1) Analyzing the Journals in2002-2005,2006-2008,2009-2011three different publishing period showed that the statistical analysismethod application rate, design type, commonly used statistical software, and the statistical designdefects rate, statistical analysis describes the defect rate, and statistical results explain the defect ratedifferences were all statistically significant (χ2value respectively41.053,49.368,88.005,10.575,23.144,16.302, P <0.05or0.01). However, in terms of the types of data,the observed indicators proportion of multi-indicators of statistical inference methods and statisticaldescription of defect rate difference was statistically insignificant (P>0.05).(2) Xinjiang MedicalUniversity year2009-2011journal and the same period published two other medical major journals(Journal B, periodicals C), the design type commonly used methods of statistical inference, statisticaldesign defect rate and some statistical description of defect rate and statistical analysis expressed defect rate difference were statistically significant (P <0.05or0.01), the statistical analysis methods in termsof the application rate, data type, observations on the proportion of multi-index, a commonly used typesof statistical software and statistical results explain the defect rate was statistically insignificant(P>0.05).Conclusion: The statistical problems of the past10years in ‘Xinjiang Medical University’significantly decreased, however, there is still a big gap compared with the other two medical majorjournals. In order to improve the quality of the application of statistical methods in the research of ourschool and in other medical journals, we need to put more efforts to improve the authors’ researchability and the cooperation between editor and reviewer. It will be a long-time and hard work.