LIGHTS

Dear @bmj.com,
Can you please fix the lack of abstracts in MEDLINE meta-data for your articles in "Methods and Reporting"?
We include many of them in the open-access @lightsdatabase.bsky.social but searchability isn't great without abstracts. Extracting abstracts from PDFs is not feasible. Thanks!

Handling Missingness, Failures, and Non-Convergence in Simulation Studies: A Review of Current Practices and Recommendations Simulation studies are commonly used in methodological research for the empirical evaluation of data analysis methods. They generate artificial datasets under specified mechanisms and compare the p...

Handling Missingness, Failures, and Non-Convergence in Simulation Studies: A Review of Current Practices and Recommendations. Samuel Pawel, František Bartoš, Björn S. Siepe, Anna Lohmann. The American Statistician. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles: how should we apply these to statistical methodology research? - BMC Medical Research Methodology Background The aim of equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is to ensure fair treatment, equal opportunities, equitable outcomes, and representation. The NIHR Research Design Service (RDS) ...

bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

NEW PAPER: Updated SPIRIT-2025 for reporting protocols of randomised trials is now available in the @BMJ.com, @JAMA.com, @thelancet.bsky.social, @PLoS.org, and @natmedicine.bsky.social.

—> www.bmj.com/content/389/...

#openscience #transparency #medsky #statssky #episky

CONSORT 2025 statement: updated guideline for reporting randomised trials Background Well designed and properly executed randomised trials are considered the most reliable evidence on the benefits of healthcare interventions. However, there is overwhelming evidence that the...

www.bmj.com/content/389/...

Expert Consensus in Science This open access book explores how expert consensus shapes science, guiding truth, policy, and practice, while proposing improvements.

Open-access book. Thanks, Anthony Jorm! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Dags Yda Like Dags Mickey Oniel GIF ALT: Dags Yda Like Dags Mickey Oniel GIF

New paper in @bmj.com. Ever been told ‘what does your DAG say?” or “show me your DAG”, or “ok draw a DAG” and not sure what that means or how to get started? Well buckle up, because Fernando Hartwig, @neilmdavies.bsky.social and I wrote an RMR on just this topic. www.bmj.com/content/388/...

🎉We are excited to announce the release of updated methodology for qualitative evidence synthesis! Updates include several new sections, such as equity qualitative evidence synthesis and reflexivity.

🔖 Bookmark the updated methodology: jbi-global-wiki.refined.site/space/MANUAL...

#JBImethodology

NEW PAPER in the @bmj.com "PROBAST+AI: an updated quality, risk of bias, and applicability assessment tool for prediction models using regression or #artificialintelligence methods"

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

#StatsSky #MLSky #AI #MethodologyMatters

Bias written in wooden blocks

Risk of bias assessment of randomised controlled trials has become an essential step in the systematic review process.

A new tool allows users to assess risk of bias of RCTs included in systematic reviews in a user friendly way
www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Reviewer notes: That’s a very nice mediation analysis you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it. Mediation analysis has gotten a lot of flak, including classic titles such as “Yes, but what’s the mechanism? (Don’t expect an easy answer)” (Bullock et al., 2010), “What mediation analysis can (not) ...

New blog post! In which I explain the issue with mediation analysis and sketch out one way to deal with the underlying causal inference problem -- in just a bit over 1,000 words!

If you have never found the time to read up on this, now is your chance.

www.the100.ci/2025/03/20/r...

Just published the Taxonomy & Thesaurus for Health Research Methodology (THEREMY), the emerging vocabulary underlying LIGHTS. It's still patchy but will grow and improve in tandem with LIGHTS.

Each term includes a link to LIGHTS. Suggestions are welcome!

loterre.istex.fr/Theremy/en/
#LOTERRE

A common issue in trials is how to accommodate multiple important outcomes. Approaches include composite outcomes or using the win ratio method (I have posted on these before). A newer method is the #DOOR (Desirability of Outcome Ranking) approach 1/7 
#MethodologyMonday #113

1/ When using observational data for #causalinference, emulating a target trial helps solve some problems... but not all problems.

In a new paper, we explain why and when the #TargetTrial framework is helpful.

www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
Joint work with my colleagues @causalab.bsky.social

Defense Against Dishonest Charts This is a guide to protect ourselves and to preserve what is good about turning data into visual things.

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims

flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

TRIPOD+AI (Expanded E&E): "If uncertainty intervals for individual prediction model outputs have been presented then provide details on how this was done" (www.bmj.com/content/385/...)

👇This new paper provides insight into uncertainty of risk estimate on decision making

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Reference-Based Multiple Imputation for Longitudinal Binary Data Reference-based multiple imputation provides a practical information anchored tool for inferences about the treatment effect for a treatment policy estimand with a longitudinal binary outcome. The latent multivariate normal model is the preferred implementation.

This new paper explores the best way to implement reference-based multiple imputation for longitudinal binary data in #ClinicalTrials where data are missing after participants deviate from their assigned treatment.

Read now👇
https://buff.ly/4jJtGOW
@matteoq21.bsky.social @suziecro.bsky.social

Introduction to network meta-analysis: understanding what it is, how it is done, and how it can be used for decision-making - PubMed Network meta-analysis (NMA), a statistical technique that allows systematic reviewers to simultaneously compare more than two alternatives, makes use of indirect evidence from studies comparing interv...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39108176/

Guidance for protocol content and reporting of factorial randomised trials: explanation and elaboration of the CONSORT 2010 and SPIRIT 2013 extensions This report presents the explanation and elaboration paper for the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) 2010 and SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Tri...

Working on a factorial trial? The Explanation and Elaboration paper for the CONSORT and SPIRIT factorial extensions is now out in @bmj.com

It includes:
-examples of how to report factorial trials
-a methodology summary around the design/conduct/analysis of these trials

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal Linear mixed-effects models (LMEMs) have become increasingly prominent in psycholinguistics and related areas. However, many researchers do not seem t…

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Powerful Myths: Common Misconceptions About Statistical Power Lukas Lengersdorff and Claus Lamm discuss three misconceptions that stand in the way of an informed discussion.

Three Myths About Statistical Power

🔹️ Myth 1: Power is an objective feature

🔹️ Myth 2: With low power comes low credibility

🔹️ Myth 3: High power protects against questionable research practices

BSky author: @clauslamm.bsky.social

Multiple Imputation for Longitudinal Data: A Tutorial Longitudinal studies are frequently used in medical research and involve collecting repeated measures on individuals over time. Observations from the same individual are invariably correlated and thu....

Hot off the press! 📣📣In this tutorial we illustrate available multiple imputation approaches for handling longitudinal data including when they are clustered within higher level clusters. A reproducible example with R and Stata code provided! #OpenAccess

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

An issue that often comes up is how to set a “non-inferiority margin” in a non-inferiority trial and how to ensure it is appropriate 1/8
#MethodologyMonday #109

Appropriate statistical methods are necessary for ethical medical research As medical statisticians, we welcome revisions to the Declaration of Helsinki emphasising the importance of appropriate methods to reduce research waste.1 The declaration now states that rigorous stu...

... @nicolewhite.bsky.social and @aidybarnett.bsky.social have already got this out there. Very nice! Read it. Cite it. Spread the message friends.

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

When estimating a treatment effect with a cluster design, you need to include varying slopes, even if the fit gives warning messages.
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/01/23/s...

The benefits of preregistration and Registered Reports Practices that introduce systematic bias are common in most scientific disciplines, including toxicology. Selective reporting of results and publication bias are two of the most prevalent sources o...

If you would like to read what I hope (and tried) to make the best (=most conceptually rigorous) review of preregistration and Registered Reports currently in the literature, see our recent paper: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Figure. Treatment Groups in an Example 2 x 2 Factorial Clinical Trial

JAMA Guide to Statistics and Methods: Factorial clinical trial designs allow for the simultaneous evaluation of multiple treatments and their interactions.

ja.ma/4gTWOB8

#MedSky

Systematic reviews of the literature: an introduction to current methods - PubMed Systematic reviews are a type of evidence synthesis in which authors develop explicit eligibility criteria, collect all the available studies that meet these criteria, and summarize results using repr...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39038802/

"If you are going to write a scientific paper for publication, you are also going to have to write a response to reviewers". Advice on "How to write a response to reviewers" from a group of editors who've ready many, many thousands of such responses. www.europeanurology.com/article/S030...

Illustrating the structures of bias from immortal time using directed acyclic graphs AbstractBackground. Immortal time is a period of follow-up during which death or the study outcome cannot occur by design. Bias from immortal time has been

Our work on immortal time bias "Illustrating the structures of bias from immortal time using directed acyclic graphs" led by Emma Guoyi Yang @yanggy_hku is out at International Journal of Epidemiology: doi.org/10.1093/ije/.... Brief thread: