1. Materials and methods Sadeghi Ramin, MD Nuclear Medicine Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

2. Materials and methods This part explains what you did in your study It should be clear enough to make other researchers able to replicate your study Use the STARD and CONSORT checklists if relevant.

3. Location and time of the study Usually the time and location of the study is mentioned in the materials and methods It is specially important in epidemiological studies

5. Study population Sampling Inclusion and exclusion criteria Local ethical committee approval Informed consent

9. Interventions All interventions should be addressed fully in the materials and methods Explain in detail randomization and blinding Sometimes you can refer to another study for details of interventions

10. How you gathered the information Mention the detailed information regarding the equipments, etc. Mention the way you gathered the data Checklists Patients’ records

14. Follow up The details of follow ups should be mentioned

16. Statistical analysis Achilles heel of the researchers Do not make a big deal of it Mention the way that data are to be presented in the results Mean ±SD Mention the statistical tests Mention the software and its version SPSS version 11.5 Mention the significance level p values less than 0.05 were considered significant

17. Statistical tests Comparing continuous data between two independent groups Independent sample t-test was used for comparison of X between males and females. Comparing continuous variables between several groups One way ANOVA was used for comparison of X between groups. Mention the post-hoc test Tukey’s honestly significant difference test was used for post-hoc analysis

19. Statistical tests For comparison between categorical variables Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test were used for categorical variables. For relation between two continuous variables Correlation analysis (spearman or pearson correlation coefficients) was used for evaluating any relationship between X and Y. Linear regression was done for continuous variables.

20. Statistical tests For more complex tests refer to this book SPSS survival manual

23. Group work Write down the variables of a hypothetical study design and prepare the statistical analysis part of the resulting manuscript.