Biology subjects

Tritz, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Tritz, D..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2019

Analysis of Practices to Promote Reproducibility and Transparency in Anaesthesiology Research: Are Important Aspects Hidden Behind the Drapes?

IntroductionReliable, high-quality research is essential to the field of anaesthesiology. Reproducibility and transparency has been investigated in the biomedical domain and in the social sciences, with both lacking to provide necessary information to reproduce the study findings. In this study, we investigated 14 indicators of reproducibility in anaesthesiology research.\n\nMethodsWe used the National Library of Medicine (NLM) catalogue to search for all anaesthesiology journals that are MEDLINE indexed and provided English texts. PubMed was searched with the list of journals to identify all publications from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018. We randomly sampled 300 publications that fit the inclusion criteria for our analysis. Data extraction was then conducted in a blinded, duplicate fashion using a pilot-tested Google form.\n\nResultsThe PubMed search of these journals identified 171,441 publications, with 28,310 being within the time frame. From the 300 publications sampled, 296 full-text publications were accessible. Most of the studies did not include materials or protocol availability statements. The majority of publications did not provide a data analysis script statement (121/122, 99% [98% to 100%]) or a preregistration statement (94/122, 77% [72% to 81%]).\n\nConclusionAnaesthesiology research needs to drastically improve indicators of reproducibility and transparency. By making research publically available and improving accessibility to detailed study components, primary research can be reproduced in subsequent studies and help contribute to the development of new practice guidelines.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

Evaluation of Reproducible and Transparent Research Practices in Pulmonology

RationaleStudy reproducibility is valuable for validating or refuting results. Provision of reproducibility indicators, such as materials, protocols, and raw data in a study to improve its potential for reproduction. Efforts to reproduce noteworthy studies in the biomedical sciences have resulted in an overwhelming majority of them being found to be unreplicable, causing concern for the integrity of research in other fields, including medical specialities.\n\nObjectiveHere, we analyzed the reproducibility of studies in the field of pulmonology.\n\nMethods300 pulmonology articles were randomly selected from an initial PubMed search for data extraction. Two authors scoured these articles for reproducibility indicators including materials, protocols, raw data, analysis scripts, inclusion in systematic reviews, and citations by replication studies as well as other factors of research transparency including open accessibility, funding source and competing interest disclosures, and study preregistration.\n\nMain ResultsFew publications included statements regarding materials (11%), protocols (1%), data (21%), and analysis script (0%) availability. Less than 10% indicated preregistration. More than half of the publications analyzed failed to provide a funding statement. Conversely, 66% of the publications were open access and 70% included a conflict of interest statement.\n\nConclusionOverall, our study indicates pulmonology research is currently lacking in efforts to increase replicability. Future studies should focus on providing sufficient information regarding materials, protocols, raw data, and analysis scripts, among other indicators, for the sake of clinical decisions that depend on replicable or refutable results from the primary literature.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

Can Orthopaedics become the Gold Standard for Reproducibility? A Roadmap to Success

BackgroundScientific research is replete with poor accessibility to data, materials, and protocol, which limits the reproducibility of a study. Transparency with regard to materials, protocols, and raw data sets enhances reproducibility by providing the critical information necessary to verify, replicate, and resynthesize research findings. The extent to which transparency and reproducibility exist in the field of orthopaedics is unclear. In our study, we aimed to evaluate transparency and reproducibility-related characteristics of randomly sampled publications in orthopaedic journals.\n\nMethodsWe used the National Library of Medicine catalog to identify English language and MEDLINE-indexed orthopaedic journals. From the 74 journals meeting our inclusion criteria, we randomly sampled 300 publications using a refined PubMed search that were published between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2018. Two investigators were trained for data extraction and analysis. Both investigators were blinded and independently extracted data from the 300 studies.\n\nResultsOur initial search yielded 68,102 publications, from which we drew a random sample of 300 publications. Of these 300 publications, 286 were screened for empirical data and 14 were inaccessible. For analysis purposes, we excluded publications without empirical data. Of the 182 with empirical data, 13 studies (7.1%) included a data availability statement, 9 (4.9%) reported materials were available, none (0.0%) provided analysis scripts, 2 (1.1%) provided access to the protocol used, 5 (2.7%) were preregistered, and only 2 (1.1%) provided a statement about being a replicated study.\n\nConclusionsComponents necessary for reproducibility are lacking in orthopaedic surgery journals. The vast majority of publications did not provide data or material availability statements, protocols, or analysis scripts, and had no preregistration statements. Intervention is needed to improve reproducibility in the field of orthopaedics. The current state of reproducibility in orthopaedic surgery could be improved by combined efforts from funding agencies, authors, peer reviewers, and journals alike.\n\nLevel of EvidenceN/A

scientific communication and education↗