RE: Bad flow cytometry papers needed

From: Fischer, Randy (NIAMS) (fischer1@mail.nih.gov)
Date: Tue Oct 16 2001 - 07:27:39 EST


Claudio,

Mario is right, the challenge is to find papers where the Flow analysis is
done properly and explained properly in the M and M and results.  Too often
a critical piece of information which would justify the author(s)
intentions/interpretations is left out, leading to the reader thinking the
author(s) need to go back to Flow 101.  I believe part of the blame must lie
on the shoulders of the editors/reviewers, who blindly read and accept both
the data in the paper and/or the reviews, sometimes merely because one of
the authors is well known in the field.  Now, I know this may mean Mario
having to review more papers, but it might also mean more people would have
to critically review their information before submission.


Randy T. Fischer
NIH/NIAMS
Building 10, Room 6D57
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
(301) 594-3537
fischer1@mail.nih.gov

> ----------
> From:		Mario Roederer
> Sent:		Friday, October 12, 2001 9:27 PM
> To:	Cytometry Mailing List
> Subject:	Re: Bad flow cytometry papers needed
>
> Claudio:
>
> nearly every paper in the literature qualifies here...  excepting those
> written by people on this list, of course.  Some years ago I was teaching
> the flow course at Stanford and did exactly the same thing.  I went to the
> most recent issue of Nature Medicine, found the very first article that
> used FACS, and gave it out.  Turns out it had nearly everything one could
> want from a paper.  I told the students I would collect all of their
> comments and send it to the author by EMail.	I did so, with the preface
> that this was not meant to be a criticism of the science, but merely to
> point out that the FACS work was awful and misinterpreted.  The author
> took it in stride, saying first "that it was unusual to receive criticism
> so soon after publication", but told me that the comments would be taken
> in the spirit in which they were intended.  Boy, I bet a postdoc or two
> was roasted that night.
>
> Anyway, the challenge to your students should be to find a paper that
> doesn't have flaws in its FACS analysis.
>
> mr
>
> At 4:40 PM +0200 10/12/01, Claudio Vallan wrote:
>
>	Dear Flowers,
>
>	I think part of the cytometry teaching would be easier if instead of
>	telling the students what they should do I would tell them what they
> should
>	not do. (For some strange reason people tend to keep this better in
> mind)
>	Unfortunately I have not many real life examples to show them. So I
> wonder
>	if somebody knows some papers which I could put as bad examples.
> (wrong
>	statistics, wrong compensation, wrong dies, misinterpreted data,
> wrong
>	controls  etc. etc.)
>
>	It is very difficult making a Medline search using those terms :-)
>
>	It would be great if I had some examples of mistakes that my
> students would
>	not anymore need to do themselves.
>
>	(Do not hesitate to mention your own papers as this may also be a
> way to
>	increase your citation index :-) )
>
>	Perhaps you should send the references to me directly, so nobody
> will get
>	too annoyed
>
>
>	Thank you in advance
>
>	Claudio
>
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