tidy-itc-workflow

Tidy ITC Workflow

Apply tidy modelling principles from "Tidy Modeling with R" (TMwR) to indirect treatment comparison analyses for consistent, reproducible, and maintainable code.

When to Use This Skill

• Setting up a new ITC analysis project
• Building reproducible analysis pipelines
• Creating standardized interfaces across ITC methods
• Ensuring code quality and maintainability
• Reviewing code for tidy modelling compliance

Core Principles from TMwR

1. The "Pit of Success" Philosophy

• Software should facilitate proper usage by design
• Users should "fall into winning practices" naturally
• Interface must protect users from methodological errors

2. Workflow-Centric Architecture

Every ITC analysis follows this structure:

Data → Validation → Preparation → Analysis → Diagnostics → Reporting

3. Consistent Interfaces

All ITC functions should have predictable patterns:

# Standard function signature pattern
itc_function(
  data,                    # Primary data input
  outcome_var,             # Outcome variable name
  treatment_var,           # Treatment variable name
  covariates = NULL,       # Optional covariates
  method = "default",      # Method specification
  alpha = 0.05,           # Significance level
  seed = NULL,            # For reproducibility
  verbose = TRUE,         # Progress messages
  ...                      # Additional method-specific args
)

# Standard return structure
list(
  results = tibble(...),   # Main results as tibble
  diagnostics = list(...), # Model diagnostics
  model = fitted_model,    # Raw model object
  data_summary = list(...),# Data summary
  call = match.call(),     # Original call
  parameters = list(...)   # Analysis parameters
)

ITC Workflow Structure

Step 1: Project Setup

# Recommended project structure
project/
├── R/
│   ├── 01_data_prep.R
│   ├── 02_analysis.R
│   ├── 03_sensitivity.R
│   └── 04_reporting.R
├── data/
│   ├── raw/
│   └── processed/
├── output/
│   ├── figures/
│   └── tables/
├── renv.lock          # Package versions
└── _targets.R         # Pipeline definition (optional)