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Editorial
. 2012 Feb;165(4):777-81.
doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.2011.01735.x.

Presenting data: can you follow a recipe?

Gordon B Drummond, Brian Dm Tom
Editorial

Presenting data: can you follow a recipe?

Gordon B Drummond et al. Br J Pharmacol. 2012 Feb.
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three comparisons between a control and a treatment group. In panel A, there is no significant difference. In B, the variations of the samples are less, and a smaller difference between the groups is now statistically significant but the difference is small and probably not biologically important. In C, the greater confidence limits are of similar width to those of B but the difference is much greater, and probably important.
Figure 2
Figure 2
In the upper panel, we show data samples taken from populations with different distributions. One sample is from a population with symmetrically distributed values; the other two samples are from a population with a skewed distribution. In the lower panel, we can see that the mean values for these groups are very similar, but the SD calculated for the skewed sample is much greater. Using median and quartile values for a sample from a skewed population provides a better description of the data. When the skewed data are transformed into logarithms, the distribution becomes more symmetrical (right-hand axis).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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