Ln. Muthami, APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL-METHODS IN THE PAPERS PUBLISHED IN THE EAST-AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL (EAMJ) SINCE 1923, East African medical journal, 70(6), 1993, pp. 328-333
The subject Statistics was hardly known in the research world at the t
ime the EAMJ was being started in 1923. It was at this time, scientist
s working in their field of specialization were busy developing statis
tical methods with the aim of solving problems affecting them in their
research work. Using a random sample of some of the papers published
by the EAMJ, this paper evaluates the usage of statistical methods sin
ce 1923. Usage was very low before 1965, but started picking-up with a
rising trend since then but still not impressive. Scientists should s
trive to apply statistical methods correctly in their research work. E
AMJ should lay more emphasis on statistical refereeing as a policy to
raise the quality of published papers in the Journal. If statisticians
were not available, which often may be the case, scientists should be
encouraged to show their work to other research colleagues working in
similar areas, before sending the paper to the EAMJ. By adopting this
approach, it is possible that the quality of papers will go up and th
e usage of statistical methods will increase.