{"entity":{"id":"idea-tr2-paid-statistical-review","kind":"idea","name":"Paid independent statistical review for preclinical papers that inform trials","aka":[],"tldr":"Clinical trials get expert statistical review; the laboratory studies that justify them usually do not. Paying statisticians to review these papers before they influence a trial would catch errors early.","summary":"Statistical errors in preclinical papers (pseudo-replication, inappropriate tests, no correction for multiple comparisons) are common and are rarely caught by biologist reviewers. Journals could not afford it; a funder-supported service that provides paid statistical review for preclinical papers cited in trial protocols or investigational new drug packages, with a published statistical report, would target the small fraction of papers that matter most for translation.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Preclinical results do not reproduce): Errington et al., Investigating the replicability of preclinical cancer biology (eLife 2021)","url":"https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71601"}],"tags":[],"related":["idea-tr2-automated-stats-check","idea-tr2-replication-before-ind"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-reproducibility","b-translational-valley"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Statistical review will identify errors changing the interpretation in at least 20% of translationally important preclinical papers, and trials informed by reviewed papers will have lower early futility rates.","rationale":"Statistical review is standard in clinical journals and reduces error; its absence in preclinical publishing is an economic rather than a scientific choice.","test":"Review 200 preclinical papers cited in registered trial protocols; publish the error rate and types; follow the trials.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"philanthropy","cost":"medium","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-paid-statistical-review/","neighbours":{"idea":[{"id":"idea-tr2-replication-before-ind","kind":"idea","name":"Independent replication of the key experiment before first-in-human academic trials","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-replication-before-ind/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-automated-stats-check","kind":"idea","name":"Run automated statistics and image checks on every cancer manuscript before review","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-automated-stats-check/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-reproducibility","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Preclinical results do not reproduce","route":"/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/"},{"id":"b-translational-valley","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The valley of death between lab and product","route":"/bottlenecks/b-translational-valley/"}]}}