P-hacking and the irreproducibility crisis

Lunch will be available at 11:45am.

Summary: Dr. Simmons will discuss the potential pitfalls of statistical practice in science, and the false-positive psychology that frequently leads to an inappropriate use of null-hypothesis models. This is a great opportunity to stay at pace with recent developments in the biomedical field. Statistical malpractice is considered one of the factors that has lead to the current irreproducibility crisis, with a large number of studies being impossible to replicate. In this light, the NIH and NIMH are taking action, while journals are changing their publication policies (i.e., the Nature Group abolished word limits for Methods, while Basic and Applied Social Psychology completely banned p-values).

References:

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21588057-scientists-think-science-self-correcting-alarming-degree-it-not-trouble

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4058759/

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2014/p-hacking.shtml

The event is organized by the Career Enhancement and Training Committe of the Biomedical Postdoctoral Council at University of Pennsylvania.