Old wine in new bottles” one might say, and some of the reviewers for this paper published rightfully pointed out that our paper was not novel in terms of showing how sequential designs are more efficient compared to non sequential designs. Figure from our publication in PLOS Biology describing sequential study designs in or computer simulations however, we explored its impact when applied to animal experiments. If this sounds familiar to those familiar with interim analyses in clinical trials, it is because it is the sam concept. But the bottom line is this: with the information you get half way through can decide to continue with the experiment or to stop because of efficacy or futility reasons. But, this peek comes at a cost: it should be taken into account in the statistical analyses, as it has direct consequence for the interpretation of the final result of the experiment. Sequential designs, what are those? It is a family of study designs (perhaps you could call it the “adaptive study size design” family) where one takes a quick peek at the results before the total number of subject is enrolled. The theme is in the same area as the first paper I published in that journal, which had the wonderful title “where have all the rodents gone”, but this time we did not focus on threats to internal validity, but we explored whether sequential study designs can be useful in preclinical research. We have another paper published in PLOS Biology.
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