Numbers etiquette in reports of pharmacy education scholarship

Clear communication is of vital importance when reporting the results of any scholarly efforts. Despite current guidance on the appropriate reporting of study designs and research methods, there is relatively little to guide authors when reporting numbers in quantitative results. While researchers usually focus on being as precise as possible in both measurement and reporting, there are important issues to consider given the limitations exhibited by most people when reading and interpreting numbers. The use of excessive decimal places can result in suggesting higher levels of precision than are actually available and even result in confusion or misinterpretation by readers. This article reviews aspects of quantitative reporting and provides recommendations for best practices when reporting quantitative results of pharmacy educational scholarship. After reading this article, readers should be able to report quantitative findings with an appropriate level of precision given the particular measurement methods used in their investigations.