Guidelines for reporting statistics in journals published by the American Physiological Society

The specific guidelines listed above can be summarized by these general ones: Analyze your data using the appropriate statistical procedures and identify these procedures in your manuscript: Guidelines 2-4; Report variability using a standard deviation, not a standard error: Guideline 5; Report a precise P value and a confidence interval when you present the result of an analysis: Guidelines 6-10; If in doubt, consult a statistician when you design your study, analyze your data, and communicate your findings: Guideline 1. The mere adherence to guidelines for reporting statistics can never substitute for an understanding of concepts and procedures in statistics. Nevertheless, we hope these guidelines, when used with other resources (4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14), will help improve the caliber of statistical information reported in articles published by the American Physiological Society.