Journal article

Questionable research practices in ecology and evolution

Hannah Fraser, Tim Parker, Shinichi Nakagawa, Ashley Barnett, Fiona Fidler

PLOS ONE | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200303

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Abstract

We surveyed 807 researchers (494 ecologists and 313 evolutionary biologists) about their use of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs), including cherry picking statistically significant results, p hacking, and hypothesising after the results are known (HARKing). We also asked them to estimate the proportion of their colleagues that use each of these QRPs. Several of the QRPs were prevalent within the ecology and evolution research community. Across the two groups, we found 64% of surveyed researchers reported they had at least once failed to report results because they were not statistically significant (cherry picking); 42% had collected more data after inspecting whether results were stat..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

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Keywords

Research
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Humans
Research Design
Research Personnel
Scientific Misconduct
Surveys and Questionnaires
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Publication Bias
Reproducibility of Results
Biological Evolution
Science & Technology
Statistics As Topic
Ecology