| Title |
Inappropriate Fiddling with Statistical Analyses to Obtain a Desirable P-value: Tests to Detect its Presence in Published Literature
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
PLOS ONE, October 2012
|
| DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0046363 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Gary L. Gadbury, David B. Allison |
| Abstract |
Much has been written regarding p-values below certain thresholds (most notably 0.05) denoting statistical significance and the tendency of such p-values to be more readily publishable in peer-reviewed journals. Intuition suggests that there may be a tendency to manipulate statistical analyses to push a "near significant p-value" to a level that is considered significant. This article presents a method for detecting the presence of such manipulation (herein called "fiddling") in a distribution of p-values from independent studies. Simulations are used to illustrate the properties of the method. The results suggest that the method has low type I error and that power approaches acceptable levels as the number of p-values being studied approaches 1000. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 83 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 18 | 22% |
| United States | 18 | 22% |
| Canada | 5 | 6% |
| Spain | 4 | 5% |
| Germany | 2 | 2% |
| France | 2 | 2% |
| Sweden | 2 | 2% |
| Comoros | 1 | 1% |
| Netherlands | 1 | 1% |
| Other | 6 | 7% |
| Unknown | 24 | 29% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 48 | 58% |
| Scientists | 30 | 36% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 4 | 5% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 1% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 116 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 7 | 6% |
| Netherlands | 2 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | <1% |
| Switzerland | 1 | <1% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| Russia | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 103 | 89% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 25 | 22% |
| Researcher | 23 | 20% |
| Professor | 11 | 9% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 10 | 9% |
| Student > Master | 9 | 8% |
| Other | 30 | 26% |
| Unknown | 8 | 7% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 24 | 21% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 18 | 16% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 16 | 14% |
| Computer Science | 9 | 8% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 5 | 4% |
| Other | 31 | 27% |
| Unknown | 13 | 11% |