The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has celebrated its 20th anniversary in a remarkable way, asking 20 UK and international readers, authors, friends, and former colleagues to name an outstanding article published since the mid-1990s.

MRC Biostatistics (BSU) is honoured to announce that a paper on Multiple Imputation (MI) co-authored by Dr Ian White, Programme Leader at the BSU, has been cited as one of “Twenty top papers to mark The BMJ’s two digital decades”.

The article was nominated by Doug Altman, Director, Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Oxford, UK, who wrote: “Missing data is a problem encountered in almost all studies—trials and observational studies—yet the issue has been neglected until relatively recently. This authoritative paper provides a very readable explanation of the problems associated with missing data and a non-technical explanation of methods to deal with missing data. It’s a great example of how to present a complex methodological issue when addressing non-methodological readers.”

Ian White added: “I’ve been delighted to contribute to the growing popularity of multiple imputation for handling missing data; this article helped researchers to get beyond their initial enthusiasm and identify the pitfalls that have to be avoided.”

To read this interesting and insightful paper, the details are: Multiple imputation for missing data in epidemiological and clinical research: potential and pitfalls, Jonathan A C Sterne, Ian R White, John B Carlin, et al (Research Methods and Reporting, BMJ 2009;338:b2393, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2393)

To read more about the other Top 20 papers featured, please go to: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h3660