Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:45:52.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Science with or without statistics: Discover-generalize-replicate? Discover-replicate-generalize?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2022

John P.A. Ioannidis*
Affiliation:
Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305, USA. [email protected]

Abstract

Overstated generalizability (external validity) is common in research. It may coexist with inflation of the magnitude and statistical support for effects and dismissal of internal validity problems. Generalizability may be secured before attempting replication of proposed discoveries or replication may precede efforts to generalize. These opposite approaches may decrease or increase, respectively, the use of inferential statistics with advantages and disadvantages.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boutron, I., & Ravaud, P. (2018). Misrepresentation and distortion of research in biomedical literature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 115(11), 26132619.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ioannidis, J. P. (2016). Exposure-wide epidemiology: Revisiting Bradford Hill. Statistics in Medicine, 35(11), 17491762.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ioannidis, J. P. (2019). The importance of predefined rules and prespecified statistical analyses: Do not abandon significance. JAMA, 321(21), 20672068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nosek, B. A., & Errington, T. M. (2020). What is replication? PLoS Biology, 18(3), e3000691.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smaldino, P. E., & McElreath, R. (2016). The natural selection of bad science. Royal Society Open Science, 3(9), 160384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed