The scientific research enterprise is built on a foundation of trust. Scientists trust that the results reported by others are valid. Society trusts that the results of research reflect an honest attempt by scientists to describe the world accurately …
In this commentary on Simmons, Nelson, and Simonsohn (this issue), we examine their rationale for pre-registration within the broader perspective of what good science is. We agree that there is potential benefit in a system of pre-registration if …
In recent years, researchers have attempted to provide an indication of the prevalence of inflated Type 1 error rates by analyzing the distribution of p-values in the published literature. De Winter & Dodou (2015) analyzed the distribution (and its …
Examination of the literature in statistics and probability that predates Fisher's Statistical Methods for Research Workers indicates that although Fisher is responsible for the first formal statement of the .05 criterion for statistical …
How likely are published findings in the functional neuroimaging literature to be false? According to a recent mathematical model, the potential for false positives increases with the flexibility of analysis methods. Functional MRI (fMRI) experiments …
Background: Meta-analyses play an important role in cumulative science by combining information across multiple studies and attempting to provide effect size estimates corrected for publication bias. Research on the reproducibility of meta-analyses …
Investigators from a large consortium of scientists recently performed a multi-year study in which they replicated 100 psychology experiments. Although statistically significant results were reported in 97% of the original studies, statistical …
Scientific reproducibility has been at the forefront of many news stories and there exist numerous initiatives to help address this problem. We posit that a contributor is simply a lack of specificity that is required to enable adequate research …
Criticisms of null-hypothesis significance tests (NHSTs) are reviewed. Used as formal, two-valued decision procedures, they often generate misleading conclusions. However, critics who argue that NHSTs are totally meaningless because the null …
In his commentary, Klonsky (2024) outlines several arguments for why preregistration mandates (PRMs) will have a negative impact on the field. Klonsky’s overarching concern is that when preregistration ceases to be a tool for research and becomes an …