Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 24;19(10):e0312619. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312619. eCollection 2024.
In scientific research, objectivity and unbiased data analysis is crucial for the validity and reproducibility of outcomes. This is particularly important for studies involving video or image categorization. A common approach of decreasing the bias is delegating data analysis to researchers unfamiliar with the experimental settings. However, this requires additional personnel and is prone to cognitive biases. Here we describe the Video & Image Cutter & Randomizer (VICR) software (https://github.com/kkihnphd/VICR), designed for unbiased analysis by segmenting and then randomizing the segmented videos or still images. VICR allows a single researcher to conduct and analyze studies in a blinded manner, eliminating the bias in analysis and streamlining the research process. We describe the features of the VICR software and demonstrate its capabilities using zebrafish behavior studies. To our knowledge, VICR is the only software for the randomization of video and image segments capable of eliminating bias in data analysis in a variety of research fields.
在科学研究中，客观性和无偏数据分析对于结果的有效性和可重复性至关重要。对于涉及视频或图像分类的研究，这一点尤为重要。一种常见的减少偏差的方法是将数据分析委托给不熟悉实验设置的研究人员。然而，这需要额外的人员，并且容易受到认知偏差的影响。在这里，我们描述了 Video & Image Cutter & Randomizer（VICR）软件（https://github.com/kkihnphd/VICR），该软件旨在通过分割然后随机化分割的视频或静态图像来进行无偏分析。VICR 允许单个研究人员以盲法进行和分析研究，消除分析中的偏差，并简化研究过程。我们描述了 VICR 软件的功能，并使用斑马鱼行为研究演示了它的功能。据我们所知，VICR 是唯一能够消除各种研究领域数据分析中偏差的视频和图像片段随机化软件。
