Policy of reviewing statistics in Indian medical and surgical journals

Although statistical methods are a vital part of research methodology, the quality of reporting statistics in published medical literature remains low containing a large number of statistical errors and deficiencies.[1‑3] In order to reduce the impact of flawed statistics and to enhance quality of reporting, medical journal editors have over the years recommended statistical guidelines for authors[4] or appointment of a statistical editor/reviewer.[5] In this scenario, a recent study by Jaykaran et al.,[6] has shown that almost 78% of the original articles published in two Indian pharmacology journals had used inappropriate statistics. To the best of our knowledge, there is no published study that looked into the process of statistical review in Indian medical and surgical journals and therefore, the present study was envisaged.