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Fig. 1 | Research Integrity and Peer Review

Fig. 1

From: Impact of peer review on discussion of study limitations and strength of claims in randomized trial reports: a before and after study

Fig. 1

Changes in the number of limitation-acknowledging sentences between manuscripts and publications as a function of the number such sentences in the manuscript. Left panel: manuscript-publication pairs below the median split. Right panel: manuscript-publication pairs above the median split. The median split was calculated as the average of the number of limitation-acknowledging sentences in the manuscript (Lm) and in the publication (Lp): (Lm + Lp)/2. These averages were ranked and the median (value = 2; interquartile range 0–5) determined. The lines are fitted using fractional polynomials with 95% confidence intervals (Stata 13.1, twoway fpfitci command). Note that, in both panels, the changes tend to increase with decreasing numbers of limitation-acknowledging sentences in the manuscript. In particular, the effect of peer review and editorial handling is large in those manuscripts above the median split (right panel) with zero limitation-acknowledging sentences in the manuscript. The vertical line in the right panel is the line x = 1. Cluttering of data points was prevented by jittering them. Therefore, data points for x = 0 are not placed exactly above the tick mark for x = 0 but somewhat scattered to the left and right. The same holds for all data points and for the vertical placement of the points

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