ABSTRACT
Methods
A survey of 136 articles published in 2019 (sampled at random) was conducted to determine whether a statement about missing data was included.
Results
The proportion of studies reporting on missing data was low, at 11.0% (95% confidence interval = 6.3% to 17.5%).
Recommendations
We recommend that researchers describe the number and percentage of missing values, including when there are no missing values. Exploratory analysis should be conducted to explore missing values, and visualisations describing missingness overall should be provided in the paper, or at least in supplementary materials. Missing values should almost always be imputed, and imputation methods should be explored to ensure they are appropriately representative. Researchers should consider these recommendations and pay greater attention to missing data and its influence on research results.
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Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.