If you didn’t believe a prevailing scientific position, you used to be part of a small fringe. To get information on your side…
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Bias The Skills We All Need to Move Past “Anti-Science” and “Us”Read more
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Bias How to Spot Research Spin: The Case of the Not-So-Simple AbstractRead more
Spin doctoring is deliberate manipulation. I don’t think everyday research spin is intended to deceive, though. Mostly it’s because researchers want to get attention…
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Bias The Mess That Trials Stopped Early Can Leave BehindRead more
Many trials end with a whimper. But some end with a bang. Press release, press conference, lots of fanfare &ndash…
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Bias Another 5 Things to Know About Meta-AnalysisRead more
Last year I wrote a post of “5 Key Things to Know About Meta-Analysis”. It was a great way to focus – but…
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Bias “Just” Joking? Sexist Talk in ScienceRead more
I’m a scientist who’s also a cartoonist. So I’ve got a pretty keen interest in scholarship and empirical research on humor. And I…
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Bias Weighing Up Anonymity and Openness in Publication Peer ReviewRead more
Scientists are in a real bind when it comes to peer review. It’s hard to be objective when we’re all among the peer reviewing…
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Bias Study Report, Study Reality, and the Gap BetweenRead more
We take mental shortcuts about research reports. “I read a study,” we say. We don’t only talk about them as though they…
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Bias Mind Your “p”s, RRs, and NNTs: On Good Statistics BehaviorRead more
P is for pandemonium. And a bit of that broke out recently when a psychology journal banned p–values and more, declaring the whole…
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Bias 5 Shortcuts to Keep Data on Risks in PerspectiveRead more
“Risky” is definitely not a one-size-fits-all concept. It’s not just that we aren’t all at the same level of every risk…
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Bias Long Overdue: Is the Question of Induction of Labor and Cesarean Section Settled?Read more
I used to think there was no question about this. Induction was the prologue to a long, hard labor that often wouldn’t go…
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Bias Resveratrol Hangover: Waking Up After Hypothesis BingeingRead more
Outbreaks of science myth-busting can be a bit of a puzzlement. The science behind a popular headline-maker might be a tottering house…
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Bias Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its CoverRead more
A competition for attention lies at the heart of the scientific enterprise. And the abstract is its “blurb.” A scientific abstract is…