Putting research in context: Understanding confidence intervals from one or more studies

Objectives To support wider use and higher quality interpretation of confidence intervals (CIs) in psychology. Methods We discuss the meaning and interpretation of CIs in single studies, and illustrate the value of CIs when reviewing and integrating research findings across studies. We demonstrate how to find CIs from summary statistics and published data in some simple situations. Results We provide the ESCI graphical software, which runs under Microsoft Excel, to assist with calculating and plotting CIs. (www.latrobe.edu.au/psy/esci) Conclusions The wider use of CIs in psychology should support quality research communication and integrated interpretation of findings in context. Key words confidence intervals; research design and methods; statistical applications. Authors wishing to publish papers in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology (JPP) will find the following as part of the 2007 editorial policy: As the science of pediatric psychology advances, so do requirements for methods. The editorial policy now requires that authors include confidence intervals (CIs) in manu