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. 2012 Dec 15;590(24):6251-4.
doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2012.248278.

Do as you would be done by: write as you would wish to read

Gordon B Drummond  1 , Sarah L Vowler
Affiliations

Do as you would be done by: write as you would wish to read

Gordon B Drummond et al. J Physiol. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The ‘good result’ has data from a normal distribution; the unwanted data have the same means but a skewed distribution (inappropriate for a t test). Each lower panel shows the same data as in the panel above, but badly displayed: it is difficult to understand why the data can be significantly different in one case and not in the other.
Figure 2
Figure 2. A poor plot
The axes are labelled, but the meaning of the stars is unclear. Are these extreme values, or do they indicate some level of significance?
Figure 3
Figure 3. A poor figure
It is unclear if the x-axis is linear, the axis label is ambiguous, the graphics overlap with each other and the y-axis, the compared values seem to have different levels of variability, it is unclear which measure of variability is used, and there are multiple comparisons between and within groups, with no evidence of correction for multiple comparison. A simple comparison between two lines (if appropriate) would be preferable.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Drummond GB, Tom BDM. How can we tell if frogs jump further? J Physiol. 2011;589:3409–3413. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Drummond GB, Vowler SL. Different tests for a difference: how do we do research? J Physiol. 2012;590:235–238. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Festing MF. Principles: the need for better experimental design. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2003;24:341–345. - PubMed
    1. Simmons JP, Nelson LD, Simonsohn U. False-positive psychology. Psychol Sci. 2011;22:1359–1366. - PubMed
    1. Tufte ER. Visual Explanations. Cheshire, CT, USA: Graphics Press; 1997. p. 52.

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