Social Science Journal 'Bans' Use of p-values

sandbagger writes: Editors of Basic and Applied Social Psychology announced in a February editorial that researchers who submit studies for publication would not be allowed to use common statistical methods, including p-values. While p-values are routinely misused in scientific literature, many researchers who understand its proper role are upset about the ban. Biostatistician Steven Goodman said, "This might be a case in which the cure is worse than the disease. The goal should be the intelligent use of statistics. If the journal is going to take away a tool, however misused, they need to substitute it with something more meaningful."

Comments

Re:Is the math not towing the groupthink?

[retchdog]

It's the opposite really. You can publish any fucking thing by mining for a low p-value (through multiple comparisons, outright biased sampling techniques, etc., etc.) and then turning your brain off.

Of course, just getting rid of the p-value outright won't solve this, but at the very least, the problem isn't what you're saying it is. Blind math fetishism isn't solving anything.