Objective To evaluate the right usage of statistical methods in medical articles. Methods 544 theses from eight medical journalspublished during1998 and 2005 were analyzed. Results 136 theses had obvious statistical errors,accounting for 25.00%. The main types of the errors were: the wrong methods of data analyzing for 61.76%, diagram error for 14.71%, nonstatistical dealing for8.82%, the mixture of rate and ratio for 8.82%, and the other error for 5.88%. Conclusion The statistical methods should be highly valued. Despite handing themanuscript to the specialist in the same field, the statistician checking system should be built through the process of manuscript dealing.
Objective To learn the current status, publication standards, formats, and contents of medical advertisements published in journals in China, and to discuss the possibility of evidence-based evaluation and standards for advertisement publication. Methods We handsearched Issue One, 2008 of 222 core medical journals indexed by A Guide to the Core Journals of China (2004 version) and the most important databases to index top 20% academic journals to identify basic journal information and the content of their advertisements. The general and trade name of the drugs, and the advertisements and production license number of the drugs and devices were collected. We used EXCEL software for data input and SPSS 13.0 for statistical analyses. Results Two-hundred and eighteen journals were handsearched and evaluated. The other 4 journals were excluded because the print version could not be found. A total of 1,201 advertisements were published in 159 (72.9%) of the journals, with the average of 5.5 (range of 1-37) for each journal. Of the advertisements, 910 (75.8%) were related to medical drugs or devices, including 598 (49.8%) drug and 312 (26.0%) medical device advertisements. Most of them were published in clinical and special medical journals. There were 518 (86.6%) drug advertisements which had both advertisement license and production license number, but only 116 (36.1%) medical device advertisements stated the advertisement license and production license number. Conclusion The medical drug advertisements published in core medical journals in China lack sufficient publication standards, and medical device advertisements are even worse. We cannot conclude the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of advertisement production according to the current limited, unclear, and highly-commercialized advertisements.
The quality of reporting of randomized clinical trials could be significantly improved by the application of CONSORT （Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials） statement. We compared and analyzed the difference of acceptance of CONSORT statement between Chinese medical journals and Western medical journals, and proposed to disseminate and apply CONSORT statement to improve the quality of reporting of randomized clinical trials and medical journals.