Contributing to journal peer review is a good way to observe and mitigate the research conducted in a scientific field, and contribute to the growth of knowledge. I have peer reviewed for some years, and assessing manuscripts for publication now comes more easily. As a peer reviewer, I think it curious how simple statistical oversights are common at submission. As
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In doing research, we apply the scientific method to answer questions. For example, does cigarette smoking cause lung cancer? What are the mechanisms of weakness after stroke? Why do cells become cancerous? What properties are specific to the poison of South American tree frogs? We want to understand all the individuals being studied (i.e. people, cells, frogs, etc.) but it
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Bias is everywhere, and as scientists we must protect ourselves from it at every turn. One area that is particularly prone to the influence of bias is data analysis. As humans we see patterns everywhere, even when they are not even there! As scientists, there is the added pressure–conscious or not–that we should find a result and if at all
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As scientists, we have all received some level of training in statistics. A fundamental concept is that we are trying to make inferences about a specific population, but that we only have access to a sample of the people, dogs, amoebas, etc that belong to that population. By randomly sampling amoebas for example, we collect data and conduct statistical tests
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Reporting bias (ie. bias arising when dissemination of research findings is influenced by the results) is thought to be common in biomedical and medical research. However, exactly how common it is has been difficult to quantify. Albarqouni and colleagues examined how commonly reporting bias occurs by examining the distribution of p values in medical research studies, and compared these distributions
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In two previous post (1, 2), I highlighted a symposium that was held to improve the reproducibility of biomedical research. The published report includes a discussion on cultural factors that have contributed to the high prevalence of irreproducible research. Culture and nature of science Whether or not the questionable research practices described in the previous post are the result of
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Scientifically Sound 