Can We Trust the Avian Medical Literature?

摘要

The aim of medical research is to contribute to the medical knowledge base and provide support for future research. In the health sciences, there have been a number of studies investigating the problem of poor statistics. Medical research (including avian medical research) is usually not performed by professional researchers but by practitioners with often no to limited statistical knowledge. As stated by Altman, "the majority of statistical analyzes are performed by people with an inadequate understanding of statistical methods. They are then peer-reviewed by people who are generally no more knowledgeable." The problem of the misuse of statistics and poor statistical reporting is not well known in avian and zoological medicine. Avian medicine, while evolving in an exponential manner, is still marginal when compared to other clinical fields and may suffer even more from the lack of quality control on biostatistics.