Oberhofer Anna L, Lennon Robert P
Department of Family Medicine, Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL, USA.
Department of Family Medicine, Naval Hospital Okinawa, Okinawa, Japan.
Acta Med Acad. 2014;43(2):172-3. doi: 10.5644/ama2006-124.118.
Historically, medical journals published only positive results from experimentation. With the growth of electronic media, many journals are now able to publish negative results as well. Because most medical experiments are designed to have different thresholds of significance for positive and negative results, this can lead readers to misunderstand the level of significance of a published negative result. We propose a technical shift - setting α equal to β - to avoid this potential for misunderstanding.
从历史上看，医学期刊只发表实验的阳性结果。随着电子媒体的发展，现在许多期刊也能够发表阴性结果。由于大多数医学实验对阳性和阴性结果设定了不同的显著性阈值，这可能会导致读者误解已发表阴性结果的显著性水平。我们提出一种技术转变——将α设为等于β——以避免这种潜在的误解。
