By Tessa Gregory
Good research should be replicable, but there are various issues that can impact reproducibility in science. In this PLOSCast, Elizabeth discusses some of these issues with Michèle Nuijten, a PhD Student at Tilburg University. Her research focuses on meta-science, covering topics such as replication, publication bias, statistical errors, and questionable research practices. She talks about the importance of checking statistics in psychology research, the impact that statistics have on replication, and some tools, like statcheck, that can be used to help with this work.
In this episode they discuss:
What is statcheck?
What happened when she used statcheck on published articles?
What is the replication crisis in psychology and what can help?
Why are these issues going on in psychology specifically?
What are questionable research practices?
What is her career advice for meta-research?
Just statcheck-ed my first co-authored manuscript. On my phone while brushing my teeth. Great stuff @MicheleNuijten @SachaEpskamp @seanrife!
— Anne Scheel (@annemscheel) October 22, 2016
Interested in learning more? Follow Michèle Nuijten on Twitter @MicheleNuijten and check out the links below:
Michèle’s website
Statcheck
R Markdown
“The (mis)reporting of statistical results in psychology journals”
“The prevalence of statistical reporting errors in psychology (1985-2013)”
METRICS at Stanford
“HARKing: hypothesizing after the results are known.”
The replication crisis
Three factors behind the replication crisis:
Diederik Stapel’s massive fraud case in 2011–2012
Bem ‘psi’ paper that found evidence for predicting the future by misusing statistical techniques
Daniel Simons’ paper on the value of replication
Interactive graphic on attitudes about climate change in the U.S., featured on NY Times
Questionable research practices, definitions and examples
Chris Hartgerink published 10s of thousands of statcheck reports on PubPeer as comments on the original articles (article about this project)
Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS)
PsychMAP: Facebook group about psychology methods and practices
Source: Check Your Stats: An interview featuring Michèle Nuijten
