BMJ Statistics Notes series

The statistical notes series is a great series of short articles on statistics for medical researchers. The text is accessible and useful also for biologists. Have a read! And update the list if you come across a new publication in the series. The publisher, BMJ[1], classifies the series as "research publication" which they make publicly available after 12 months. That means links to the most recent papers are for subscribers only.

Gerard E. Dallal, author of the excellent "Little Handbook of Statistical Practice" [2], says this about the series:

"Perhaps the finest series of short articles on the use of statistics is the occasional series of Statistics Notes started in 1994 by the British Medical Journal. ...

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence is something every investigator should know, but too few do. Along with Interaction 2: compare effect sizes not P values, these articles describe two of the most common fatal mistakes in manuscripts submitted to research journals. The faulty reasoning leading to these errors is so seductive that papers containing these errors sometimes slip through the reviewing process and misinterpretations of data are published as fact.

Correlation, regression, and repeated data, Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 1--correlation within subjects, and Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 2--correlation between subjects provide an excellent introduction to the subtleties of analyzing repeated measurements on the same subject.