# Run automated statistics and image checks on every cancer manuscript before review

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-automated-stats-check/  
OnCo record `idea-tr2-automated-stats-check` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Software can already spot impossible statistics, mismatched p-values and duplicated images in a paper. Journals should run these checks on every submission, as spell-check runs on every document.

## Summary

Tools such as statcheck (recomputing p-values from reported test statistics), GRIM and SPRITE (checking whether means are possible given sample sizes) and image-duplication detectors identify errors and manipulation at scale. Some journals run image checks; almost none run statistical checks routinely. Integrating a pipeline at submission, with results shown to authors and reviewers, would catch a substantial fraction of errors before publication and deter fabrication.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Routine checks flag actionable issues in at least 10% of oncology submissions, and journals using them see a lower subsequent correction and retraction rate than matched journals without them.
- Rationale: statcheck found inconsistent p-values in about half of psychology papers, with a meaningful share changing significance; image duplication has been documented in about 4% of biomedical papers.
- Proposed test: Deploy the pipeline at two oncology journals for a year; report flag rates, author responses and downstream correction rates.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: engineering

## Sources

- statcheck: https://github.com/MicheleNuijten/statcheck

## Connected records

- ideas: [Automatically detect when a trial changes its outcomes after the fact](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-outcome-switching-monitor/), [Deposit the raw blots, gels and microscopy images behind every figure](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-raw-image-deposit/), [Paid independent statistical review for preclinical papers that inform trials](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-paid-statistical-review/), [Publish the disagreement between trial doctors and independent reviewers for every trial](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-bicr-discordance-public/)
- bottlenecks: [Preclinical results do not reproduce](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/)

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