Trials and tribulations of statistical significance in biochemistry and omics

Over recent years many statisticians and researchers have highlighted that statistical inference would benefit from a better use and understanding of hypothesis testing, p-values, and statistical significance. We highlight three recommendations in the context of biochemical sciences. First recommend...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Montero, Olimpio, Hedeland, Mikael, Balgoma, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/337238
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/337238
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:p-values
Storey's q-values
Hypothesis testing
Selective reporting
Descripción
Sumario:Over recent years many statisticians and researchers have highlighted that statistical inference would benefit from a better use and understanding of hypothesis testing, p-values, and statistical significance. We highlight three recommendations in the context of biochemical sciences. First recommendation: to improve the biological interpretation of biochemical data, do not use p-values (or similar test statistics) as thresholded values to select biomolecules. Second recommendation: to improve comparison among studies and to achieve robust knowledge, perform complete reporting of data. Third recommendation: statistical analyses should be reported completely with exact numbers (not as asterisks or inequalities). Owing to the high number of variables, a better use of statistics is of special importance in omic studies.