OBJECTIVETo evaluate the research design and the use of statistical methods in Chinese Journal of Cardiology.

METHODPeer through the research design and statistical methods in all of the original papers in Chinese Journal of Cardiology from December 2007 to November 2008.

RESULTThe most frequently used research designs are cross-sectional design (34%), prospective design (21%) and experimental design (25%). In all of the articles, 49 (25%) use wrong statistical methods, 29 (15%) lack some sort of statistic analysis, 23 (12%) have inconsistencies in description of methods. There are significant differences between different statistical methods (P < 0.001). The correction rates of multifactor analysis were low and repeated measurement datas were not used repeated measurement analysis.

CONCLUSIONMany problems exist in Chinese Journal of Cardiology. Better research design and correct use of statistical methods are still needed. More strict review by statistician and epidemiologist is also required to improve the literature qualities.