Statistics Notes in the British Medical Journal

This series is edited by Doug Altman, Cancer Research UK, and Martin Bland, University of York. All Statistics Notes published so far are listed. All are available on the excellent BMJ website. There is now a link on the BMJ website. If you visit the BMJ, you will have to use your browser's "Back" button to get back to this page.

The BMJ has now put all the earlier Statistics Notes on the web as PDF files. These are better than the HTML version, especially as some of the early web versions had a few problems. The links below take you to the HTML web page, but that contains a link to the superior PDF version. These were created by scanning the printed versions, so they are not as sharp as the recent ones, but they represent a great improvement nevertheless. Well done the BMJ, and thank you.

We have written a short history of Statistics Notes.

Some of the numbers of the Notes differ from those in the BMJ. This is because a temporary error at BMJ led to some numbers being omitted and others used more than once.

Statistics Notes published so far

1. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1994) Correlation, regression and repeated data. 308, 896.

2. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1994) Regression towards the mean. 308, 1499.

3. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1994) Diagnostic tests 1: sensitivity and specificity. 308, 1552.

4. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1994) Diagnostic tests 2: predictive values. 309, 102.

5. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1994) Diagnostic tests 3: receiver operating characteristic plots. 309, 188.

6. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1994) One- and two-sided tests of significance. 309, 248.

7. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1994) Some examples of regression towards the mean. 309, 780.

8. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1994) Quartiles, quintliles, centiles, and other quantiles. 309, 996.

9. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1994) Matching. 309, 1128.

10. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1995) The normal distribution. 310, 298.

11. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1995) Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 1, correlation within subjects. 310, 446.

12. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1995) Calculating correlation coefficients with repeated observations: Part 2, correlation between subjects. 310, 633.

13. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1995) Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 311, 485. (Reprinted : Australian Veterinary Journal 1996;74, 311.)

14. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1995) Multiple significance tests: the Bonferroni method. 310, 170.

15. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1996) Presentation of numerical data. 312, 572.

16. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) Logarithms. 312, 700.

17. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) Transforming data. 312, 770.

18. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) Transformations, means and confidence intervals. 312, 1079.

19. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) The use of transformations when comparing two means. 312, 1153.

20. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1996) Comparing several groups using analysis of variance. 312, 1472-3.

21. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) Measurement error. 313, 744 (Republished because of printers' errors in the earlier version, BMJ 1996; 312, 1654.)

22. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) Measurement error and correlation coefficients. 313, 41-2. (The wrong data table was printed in the BMJ. The correct data are available.)

23. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1996) Measurement error proportional to the mean. 313, 106.

24. Altman DG, Matthews JNS. (1996) Interaction 1: Heterogeneity of effects. 313, 486.

25. Matthews JNS, Altman DG. (1996) Interaction 2: compare effect sizes not P values. 313, 808.

26. Matthews JNS, Altman DG. (1996) Interaction 3: How to examine heterogeneity. 313, 862.

27. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1996) Detecting skewness from summary information. 313, 1200.

28. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1997) Cronbach's alpha. 314, 572.

29. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1997) Units of analysis. 314, 1874.

30. Bland JM, Kerry SM. (1997) Trials randomised in clusters. 315, 600.

31. Kerry SM, Bland JM. (1998) Analysis of a trial randomised in clusters. 316, 54.

32. Bland JM, Kerry SM. (1998) Weighted comparison of means. 316, 129.

33. Kerry SM, Bland JM. (1998) Sample size in cluster randomisation. 316, 549.

34. Kerry SM, Bland JM. (1998) The intra-cluster correlation coefficient in cluster randomisation. 316, 1455.

35. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1998) Generalisation and extrapolation. 317, 409-410.

36. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1998) Time to event (survival) data. 317, 468-469.

37. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1998) Bayesians and frequentists. 317, 1151.

38. Bland JM, Altman DG. (1998) Survival probabilities (the Kaplan-Meier method). 317, 1572.

39. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1999) Treatment allocation in controlled trials: why randomise? 318, 1209.

40. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1999) Variables and parameters. 318, 1667.

41. Altman DG, Bland JM. (1999) How to randomise. 319, 703-4.

42. Bland JM, Altman DG. (2000) The odds ratio. 320, 1468.

43. Day SJ and Altman DG. (2000) Blinding in clinical trials and other studies. 321, 504.

44. Altman DG and Schulz KF. (2001) Concealing treatment allocation in randomised trials.323, 446-447.

45. Vickers AJ and Altman DG. (2001) Analysing controlled trials with baseline and follow up measurements. 323, 1123-1124.

46. Bland JM and Altman DG. (2002) Validating scales and indexes. 324, 606-607.

47. Altman DG and Bland JM. (2003) Interaction revisited: the difference between two estimates. 326, 219. 

48. Bland JM and Altman DG. (2004) The logrank test. 328, 1073.

49. Deeks JJ and Altman DG. (2004) Diagnostic tests 4: likelihood ratios. 329, 168-169.

50. Altman DG, Bland JM. (2005) Treatment allocation by minimisation. 330, 843.

51. Altman DG, Bland JM. (2005) Standard deviations and standard errors. 331, 903.

52. Altman DG, Royston P. (2006) The cost of dichotomising continuous variables. 332, 1080.

53. Altman DG, Bland JM. (2007) Missing data. 334, 424.

54. Altman DG, Bland JM. (2009) Parametric v non-parametric methods for data analysis. 338, a3167.

55. Bland JM, Altman DG. (2009) Analysis of continuous data from small samples. 338, a3166.

56. Bland JM, Altman DG. (2011) Correlation in restricted ranges of data. 342: d556.

57. Bland JM, Altman DG. Comparisons within randomised groups can be very misleading. 2011; 342: d561.

58. Altman DG, Bland JM. How to obtain the confidence interval from a P value. 2011; 343: d2090.

59. Altman DG, Bland JM. How to obtain the P value from a confidence interval. 2011; 343: d2304.

60. Altman DG, Bland JM. Brackets (parentheses) in formulas. 2011; 343: d570.

61. Vickers AJ, Altman DG. Missing outcomes in randomised trials. 2013; 346: f3438.

62. Altman DG, Bland JM. Uncertainty and sampling error. 2014; 349: g7064.

63. Altman DG, Bland JM. Uncertainty beyond sampling error. 2014; 349: g7065.

64. Bland JM, Altman DG. Bootstrap resampling methods. 2015; 350: h2622.

65. Mansournia MA, Altman DG. Inverse probability weighting. 2016; 352: i189.

66. Cole TJ, Altman DG. What is a percentage difference? 2017; 358: j3663.

67. Cole TJ, Altman DG. Percentage differences, symmetry, and natural logarithms. 2017; 358: j3683.

68. Mansournia MA, Altman DG. Population attributable fraction. 2018; 360: k757.

More are on the way. 


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Last updated: 26 March, 2018.

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