Data do not speak for themselves!

One of the humbling adventures of epidemiology is the discovery of ways that data fool us. There’s probably no epidemiologist who hasn’t fallen prey, at one time or another, to the deceptions that lurk in our data.

I’m recommending five papers for your summer reading. The first three elegantly opened my eyes to problems that could have suckered me. The fourth paper did fool me at first. I challenge you to read this paper and find the problem yourself, before reading Jean Golding’s elegant reveal.