Articles

What a pre-submission statistical review covers

The questions and checks a statistical review runs before submission, the two moments it is worth doing, and what it costs.

Published July 2026

Why manuscripts get rejected for statistics

The common methodological and statistical reasons reviewers reject papers, and how to catch them first.

Published June 2026

Why editors desk-reject before peer review

The screen a manuscript clears before a reviewer ever sees it — and the avoidable reasons it fails.

Published July 2026

How journals catch statistical errors

The screens editors and reviewers run — from eyeballed arithmetic to automated consistency checkers.

Published July 2026

The GRIM test: catching impossible means

A one-line arithmetic check that flags reported means a given sample size cannot produce.

Published July 2026

When a p-value doesn't match its test statistic

A reported p that doesn't follow from its test statistic and degrees of freedom — and what it signals.

Published July 2026

Post-hoc power is meaningless — what to do instead

Why observed power adds nothing to a finished study, and the precision statements reviewers are actually asking for.

Published July 2026

The STROBE checklist, item by item

A pre-submission walkthrough of the 22-item reporting guideline for observational studies.

Published July 2026

The CONSORT checklist, item by item

A pre-submission walkthrough of the reporting guideline for randomized controlled trials.

Published July 2026

The TRIPOD checklist, item by item

A pre-submission walkthrough of the reporting guideline for clinical prediction models.

Published July 2026

The PRISMA checklist, item by item

A pre-submission walkthrough of the reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Published July 2026

Responding to Reviewer 2's statistics comments

How to answer the hard statistical critiques in a revision — point by point, without spin.

Published July 2026

A reviewer asked for a statistician — what now?

What the comment usually means, the four real options, and how to answer the letter honestly in each case.

Published July 2026

Statistical review options before you submit

Ways to get a statistical read before submission, and where an automated pre-submission review fits.

Published June 2026

Case study: an imprecise null read as a finding

Reading a moderate-severity report on a multi-hospital colectomy cohort — where the gap is framing, not error.

Published July 2026

Case study: reverse causation in a risk model

A serious finding in a pulmonary-embolism prediction model — a strong model whose central claim outruns the evidence.

Published July 2026

Case study: catching what the record already knew

Running the engine on a landmark trial retracted for randomization irregularities — and sizing it correctly.

Published July 2026