Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Educational Assets
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

How to torment your colleagues with statistics

By Lee Teschler | February 7, 2020

Teschler on Topic
Leland Teschler • Executive Editor
[email protected]

Here’s a quick way to make yourself unpopular and bruise egos among researchers in your field: Check the statistics in their research findings for errors.

It turns out that researchers in many fields aren’t particularly good statisticians. So when they apply statistical tools to data they’ve collected, they often screw up the math or draw the wrong conclusions from their calculations.

In particular, researchers are prone to find statistical significance in results where there really isn’t any. So warns LeeTeschlerTHSteve Ziliak, an economics professor at Roosevelt University. Ziliak coauthored a book called The Cult of Statistical Significance wherein he warns that researchers frequently misuse the student T-test and p values. Ziliak combed through papers published in numerous prestigious economics, operations research, and medical journals. He found many instances of researchers using statistical significance as if it was the same as correlation.

The distinction between the two concepts isn’t just a matter of pedantic statistical minutia. In medical research, for example, confusion about significance levels can lead to rejecting good drugs in favor of alternatives that are less effective.

There is also evidence that technical personnel aren’t particularly good at catching simple math errors in their work. So says Stanford Associate Professor Kristin Sainani. Writing in the journal of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, she says statistical errors are surprisingly common in biomedical literature, and many of them are detectable simply by running the numbers given in the paper.

Common sense and simple arithmetic are often all that’s required to find problems. In one paper, Sainani says she found numerical problems just by scanning the numbers in a table—they didn’t add up. In another case, Sainani noticed that a non-surgical pain treatment claimed a drastic, and implausibly large, reduction in pain. A little sleuthing revealed the researchers had confused standard error with standard deviation when compiling results.

I’m sure the researchers who made these blunders were embarrassed when confronted with their mistakes. Interestingly, free tools on the internet now make it possible for almost anyone to point out mathematical errors to the chagrin of those who made them.

One in this category is called Statcheck (statcheck.io) which extracts statistics from papers and checks them for internal consistency. Another free online calculator called Grim (Granularity-related inconsistent means test) flags impossible mean values. When the reported mean and sample size are entered, Grim (www.prepubmed.org/grim_test/) tells you whether they are consistent or inconsistent, i.e., whether or not you can really compute this mean if the samples are all whole numbers.

An additional fun online tool is WebPlotDigitizer (apps.automeris.io/wpd/) which examines a plot you upload (as an image) to it and extracts the x and y values, among other things. Given a forest plot (a graphical display of estimated results from a number of scientific studies addressing the same question,), the tool also extracts other parameters such as means and confidence intervals. When given histograms or bar charts it figures percentages and calculates angles and distances from images.

These tools can open the door to all kinds of mischief. Those who are especially industrious might aspire to the achievements of English anesthetist John Carlisle. When he can’t sleep, he goes through data in published clinical trials looking for problems. According to Scientific American, Carlisle’s part-time efforts have led to the retraction or correction of hundreds of papers and have helped end the careers of three scientists who faked data outright.

Not bad results for just a hobby. DW

You Might Also Like


Filed Under: Screws • nuts • bolts • rivets

 

LEARNING CENTER

Design World Learning Center
“dw
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Design Engineering Professionals.
Motor University

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Widening the scope for machine tool designers with FORTiS™ enclosed encoder
  • Sustainability, Innovation and Safety, Central to Our Approach
  • Why off-highway is the sweet spot for AC electrification technology
  • Looking to 2025: Past Success Guides Future Achievements
  • North American Companies Seek Stronger Ties with Italian OEMs
  • Adapt and Evolve
View More >>
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Control Engineering
  • Consulting-Specifying Engineer
  • Plant Engineering
  • Engineering White Papers
  • Leap Awards

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Educational Assets
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. We share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.OkNoRead more