ReviewJournal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research2016
P values: from suggestion to superstition.
Review in Journal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Brain oxygenation monitoring during neonatal stabilization and resuscitation and its potential for improving preterm infant outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis with Bayesian analysis.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- Investigating the Relationship Between Visual Evoked Potentials, Neurological and Neuropsychological Status in Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Multimodal assessment of arterial stiffness using photoplethysmography and laser Doppler flowmetry.NPJ cardiovascular health · 2026Article
- Region of residence, exposure to the media, and awareness of sexually transmitted infections among women in Ghana.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Fluid intake in term and preterm infants exposed to maternal diabetes.Academia nutrition and dietetics · 2026Article
- Reproducibility of statistically significant phase III oncology trials: An In Silico meta-epidemiological analysis.European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) · 2025Article
- Survival-inferred fragility of statistical significance in phase III oncology trials.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Article
- Inflammation and minority stress: A moderated mediation model of childhood adversity and mental health in young men who have sex with men.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Establishing feasibility and reliability of subcutaneous fat measurements by ultrasound in very preterm infants.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- Calculation of the minimum clinically important difference (MCID) using different methodologies: case study and practical guide.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2024Article
- Investigation and Evaluation of the Transdermal Delivery of Ibuprofen in Various Characterized Nano-Drug Delivery Systems.Pharmaceutics · 2023Article
- Sensor Array-Enabled Identification of Drugs for Repolarization of Macrophages to Anti-Inflammatory Phenotypes.Analytical chemistry · 2023Article
- Unmet needs and wish for support of family caregivers of primary brain tumor patients.Neuro-oncology practice · 2023Article
- Evaluation of a training programme for critical incident debrief facilitators.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Article
- Chemical Composition and Biological Activities ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The epidemiology of Achilles tendon re-rupture and associated risk factors: male gender, younger age and traditional immobilising rehabilitation are risk factors.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2022Article
- P-value and effect-size in clinical and experimental studies.Jornal vascular brasileiro · 2021Article
- Identification and Development of Subtypes with Poor Prognosis in Gastric Cancer Based on Both Hypoxia and Immune Cell Infiltration.International journal of general medicine · 2021Article
- Reporting Characteristics in Sports Nutrition.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A threshold probability value of 'p≤0.05' is commonly used in clinical investigations to indicate statistical significance. To allow clinicians to better understand evidence generated by research studies, this review defines the p value, summarizes the historical origins of the p value approach to hypothesis testing, describes various applications of p≤0.05 in the context of clinical research and discusses the emergence of p≤5×10(-8) and other values as thresholds for genomic statistical analyses. Corresponding issues include a conceptual approach of evaluating whether data do not conform to a null hypothesis (ie, no exposure-outcome association). Importantly, and in the historical context of when p≤0.05 was first proposed, the 1-in-20 chance of a false-positive inference (ie, falsely concluding the existence of an exposure-outcome association) was offered only as a suggestion. In current usage, however, p≤0.05 is often misunderstood as a rigid threshold, sometimes with a misguided 'win' (p≤0.05) or 'lose' (p>0.05) approach. Also, in contemporary genomic studies, a threshold of p≤10(-8) has been endorsed as a boundary for statistical significance when analyzing numerous genetic comparisons for each participant. A value of p≤0.05, or other thresholds, should not be employed reflexively to determine whether a clinical research investigation is trustworthy from a scientific perspective. Rather, and in parallel with conceptual issues of validity and generalizability, quantitative results should be interpreted using a combined assessment of strength of association, p values, CIs, and sample size.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.