Abstract
Background & Objectives: Statistical methods as an adjunct to biomedical research have an important role in the design, management, analysis and interpretation of scientific data. The main purpose of this review was to determine the statistical methods, acceptance period and related factors in Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal (IRCMJ) articles.
Methods: Original articles in the period 2014 to 2021 from volumes 16 to 23 and issues 1 to 12 were reviewed (1300 articles). Each article was reviewed by a 2-member team consisting of a statistician and an expert researcher in the field of medical research. statistical methods, sample size, sampling method, statistical population, study design and software were extracted. Frequency, Percentage, Median, Inter quartile range and Multiple response analysis (MRA), the Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used to discription and analysis, respectively . All analyzes were performed in SPSS26 software with a significance level of 5%.
Results: The statistical population of most published articles was related to patients (41.2% and 547 articles). Most studies (43.5% and 565 articles) had a sample size between 100 and 500 people. Most of them were analytical intervention (41.2% and 535 articles). Median (IQR) of acceptance period were 94 (95.57) days. The results of MRA showed that both among the total tests and among the articles, the highest rate of use of statistical methods was related to T-test, Chi square test and descriptive statistics. There were no statistically significant factor influencing acceptance period (p>0.05), and no significant correlation between acceptance period and sample size of published articles (r=-0.04, p=0.625).
Conclusion: Given that acceptance period is a key factor for researchers to choose a journal, it seems to be effective if it is reduced. Contrary to some novice researchers' beliefs, the acceptance period of the article was not affected by the design, statistical methods, and sample size etc. of the study.