About the Authors

Sarah L. Gorst

sgorst@liverpool.ac.uk

Affiliation Department of Biostatistics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Elizabeth Gargon

Affiliation Department of Biostatistics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Mike Clarke

Affiliation Northern Ireland Network for Trials Methodology Research, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

Jane M. Blazeby

Affiliation School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, and Division of Surgery, Head & Neck, University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, United Kingdom

Douglas G. Altman

Affiliation Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Paula R. Williamson

Affiliation Department of Biostatistics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

MC, JMB, DGA, and PRW are members of the COMET Management Group and co-applicants on grants to support COMET and related work. EG is a member of the COMET Management Group and is the COMET Project Co-ordinator. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: EG PRW. Performed the experiments: SLG EG. Analyzed the data: SLG EG PRW MC JMB DGA. Wrote the paper: SLG EG PRW MC.