Inappropriate fiddling with statistical analyses to obtain a desirable p-value: tests to detect its presence in published literature.
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.
Department of Statistics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA. gadbury@ksu.edu
Gary L
GL
Gadbury
David B
DB
Allison
D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D008192:Deception; D006801:Humans; D011643:Publishing