E. Peace, Karl, One-sided or two-sided ρ values: which most appropriately address the question of drug efficacy?, Journal of biopharmaceutical statistics (Print) JBS , 1(1), 1991, pp. 133-138
Whether a one-sided or a two-sided ρ value should be used for reporting the results of an analysis should be determined by the a priori question the investigation seeks to answer. It is concluded that one-sided ρ values are appropriate in clinical trials whose objective is to provide definitive, confirmatory evidence of efficacy of pharmaceutical compounds.