======= Date Modified 21 13 2010 15:13:35 =======
Hello all,

I am preparing a course on the importance of good experimental design and I am searching for short, published articles for the students to read and critique. I would like a few examples of poor experimental design, this could be poor sampling techniques, poor randomisation, poor method, lack of blinding etc. Anything that equates to poor experimental design but the papers must be short reports (max 3 pages) and easy to read as I want this to be a quick exercise for the students.

Papers involving in vivo research, i.e. live animal or human participants would be best.

I'm trawling through the journals and databases now but finding a published 'bad' paper is not as easy as finding a good one (thankfully!) and I thought a few of you may be able to recommend some papers that you have come across during your research.

Many thanks for any suggestions :)

hello there
sorry i dont know any "bad" papers; but a good place to look is Review articles; search these in your area
and you can see examples there (according to the reviewers, Study A did not do this...study B did not report this...)

good luck
love satchi

read Ben Goldacre's book, he has examples of medical trials and testing for beauty products etc that are shockingly bad.

if you PM me your email address I can mail you some... got a few on lab animal science that have flaws in design...

I just came accross a bad one involving behaviour of babies aged 1-and-a-half day.
If you are interested, PM me and I can give you the details

Thank you both - I will email you now :)



Thank you for the suggestion. I actually have a copy of Ben's book and you're right, it's a good place to start.



That's a really good suggestion, I'll have a search for review articles today - thank you.

Lots of helpful replies - that's what's so nice about this forum :)