The phrase "a modest sample of" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a small or limited selection of something, often in the context of research, surveys, or examples.
Example: "In this study, we collected a modest sample of participants to analyze their responses to the survey."
Alternatives: "a small selection of" or "a limited number of".
Alexander Kulminksi, "Genome-wide meta-analysis of 24 age-related phenotypes leveraging longitudinal follow up and genetic heterogeneity identified abundant associations in a modest sample of 26,371 individuals" (poster).
This was an exploratory study with a modest sample of MDs.
This study was limited to a modest sample of print media containing light passenger vehicle advertisements (albeit the two major monthly current affairs magazines with a wide readership).
Common variants in the genes SOD2, CAT, GPX1, GPX4, GSR and TXN were identified by resequencing in a modest sample of individuals (90 in total and 62 non-African Americans).
Turgut and colleagues examined blood lead (Pb), copper (Cu), Cd, SF, and hemoglobin (Hgb) levels in a modest sample of children in Turkey (n = 256), where ID and heavy metal exposures are common.
In the current study, serial assessment of a modest sample of children receiving PROMPT for idiopathic apraxia informed of a possible mechanism and neural target for therapeutic action the intervention promoted development of sensory-motor systems controlling speech production, associated with thinning and possible maturation of Wernicke's area.
In all, ProPublica found seven errors in a modest sampling of Supreme Court opinions written from 2011 through 2015.
For this study, a modest sample to item ratio of 8.5 1 (341 participants, 40 questionnaire items) was achieved (MacCallum et al., 1999).
We may owe our ability to detect such differences in a modest sample to our use of a sibling design that controls for genetic variation.
We compared the magnitude of LD for all possible pairs of the 11 SNPs in controls by calculating D' and r2 (Table 3 - additional file 3., upper diagonal), because LD around common alleles can be measured with a modest sample size of 40 50 individuals to a precision equal to 10 20% of the asymptotic limit [ 19].
Third, with a modest sample size of 116 participants, power would not be large.
