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COMMON MISTEAKS
MISTAKES IN
USING STATISTICS: Spotting and Avoiding Them
Suggestions for Researchers
Physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman provided some good
advice for researchers:
The only way to have real success in science ... is to describe the
evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should
be. If you have a theory, you must try to explain what's good and
what's bad about it equally. In science, you learn a kind of standard
integrity and honesty.
What
Do You Care What Other
People Think? (1988) p. 217
There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in "cargo cult
science"... It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of
scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty —
a kind of leaning over backwards... For example, if you're doing an
experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it
invalid — not only what you think is right about it... Details
that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you
know them. ... If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or
put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree
with it, as well as those that agree with it. ... In summary, the idea
is to try to give all of the
information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not
just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction
or another. ... The first principle is that yoiu must not fool yourself
-- and you are the easist person to fool. So you have to be very
careful about that.
"Cargo Cult Science",
adapted from a commencement address given at Caltech (1974)