ABSTRACT
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methodology was developed during the Second World War to evaluate new signal detection technology. Since the 1950s, it has been used extensively in radar detection and psychophysical research. The classic textbooks are by Green and Swets (1966) and Egan (1975). Since 1982, both interest and applications have increased in the elds of radiology, preventive medicine, and clinical evaluative sciences. Comprehensive textbooks over the past two decades included those authored by Swets and Pickett (1982), Macmillan and Creelman (1991), Zhou et al. (2002), Pepe (2003), Gönen (2007), and Krzanowski and Hand (2009). New methodological developments in biomedical contexts frequently appear in medical and statistical journals. Hence, the ROC methodology has been adapted to several clinical areas heavily dependent on screening and diagnostic tests, in particular, laboratory testing, epidemiology, radiology, and bioinformatics.
