randomizeR: An R Package for the Assessment and Implementation of Randomization in Clinical Trials

Abstract

Randomization in clinical trials is the key design technique to ensure the comparability of treatment groups. Although there exist a large number of software products which assist the researcher to implement randomization, no tool which would cover a wide range of procedures and allow the comparative evaluation of the procedures under practical restrictions has been proposed in the literature so far. The R package randomizeR addresses this need. The paper includes a detailed description of the randomizeR package that serves as a tutorial for the generation of randomization sequences and the assessment of randomization procedures.

Keywords

• clinical trial
• restricted randomization
• selection bias
• chronological bias
• R