Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28938713›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2017

Invited Commentary: Can Issues With Reproducibility in Science Be Blamed on Hypothesis Testing?

Clarice R Weinberg

Abstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Resource Sharing to Improve Research Quality.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2019
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Clarice R WeinbergBiostatistics and Computational Biology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NC.

Funding

STATISTICAL METHODS IN EPIDEMIOLOGY--GENERALZ01ES040006 · NIEHS · NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES · PI WEINBERG, CLARICE · 1997 to 2008
$65k
Intramural NIH HHS Z01 ES040006
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In the accompanying article (Am J Epidemiol. 2017;186(6):646-647), Dr. Timothy Lash makes a forceful case that the problems with reproducibility in science stem from our "culture" of null hypothesis significance testing. He notes that when attention is selectively given to statistically significant findings, the estimated effects will be systematically biased away from the null. Here I revisit the recent history of genetic epidemiology and argue for retaining statistical testing as an important part of the tool kit. Particularly when many factors are considered in an agnostic way, in what Lash calls "innovative" research, investigators need a selection strategy to identify which findings are most likely to be genuine, and hence worthy of further study.

Indexed as

Molecular EpidemiologyResearch DesignHumansReproducibility of Resultsepidemiologic methodsP valuesreproducibility of resultssignificance testing

Identifiers

PMID28938713
PMCPMC5860396

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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Registered trials

None linked

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.