Pharmaceutical Statistics Using SAS

5.3. Randomization in Toxicology Studies

One of the most important elements of any research design is the concept of randomization. This concept is central to all types of toxicology research (Lin, 2001). Random assignment of experimental animals to different groups helps reduce the potential biases among the comparison groups and allows a valid interpretation of the research results. Most statistical packages can produce random numbers within a specified range, which can be used to assign experimental units to treatments. Some textbooks have tables of random numbers designed for this purpose.

There are generally two approaches to creating randomization tables in SAS. The first approach is based on a direct generation of randomization tables ...