Standard deviation(SD)and standard error of the mean(SEM)have been applied widely as error bars in scientific plots.Unfortunately,there is no universally accepted principle addressing which of these 2 measures should ...Standard deviation(SD)and standard error of the mean(SEM)have been applied widely as error bars in scientific plots.Unfortunately,there is no universally accepted principle addressing which of these 2 measures should be used.Here we seek to fill this gap by outlining the reasoning for choosing SEM over SD and hope to shed light on this unsettled disagreement among the biomedical community.The utility of SEM and SD as error bars is further discussed by examining the figures and plots published in 2 research articles on pancreatic disease.展开更多
基金BZ research was supported,in part,by the National Institutes of Health grant U24 AA026968the University of Massachusetts Center for Clinical and Translational Science grants UL1TR001453,TL1TR01454,and KL2TR01455.
文摘Standard deviation(SD)and standard error of the mean(SEM)have been applied widely as error bars in scientific plots.Unfortunately,there is no universally accepted principle addressing which of these 2 measures should be used.Here we seek to fill this gap by outlining the reasoning for choosing SEM over SD and hope to shed light on this unsettled disagreement among the biomedical community.The utility of SEM and SD as error bars is further discussed by examining the figures and plots published in 2 research articles on pancreatic disease.
