In:
Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal, SAGE Publications, Vol. 74, No. 3 ( 2023-08), p. 497-507
Abstract:
P-hacking, the tendency to run selective analyses until they become significant, is prevalent in many scientific disciplines. Purpose This study aims to assess if p-hacking exists in imaging research. Methods Protocol, data, and code available here https://osf.io/xz9ku/?view_only=a9f7c2d841684cb7a3616f567db273fa . We searched imaging journals Ovid MEDLINE from 1972 to 2021. Text mining using Python script was used to collect metadata: journal, publication year, title, abstract, and P-values from abstracts. One P-value was randomly sampled per abstract. We assessed for evidence of p-hacking using a p-curve, by evaluating for a concentration of P-values just below .05. We conducted a one-tailed binomial test (α = .05 level of significance) to assess whether there were more P-values falling in the upper range (e.g., .045 〈 P 〈 .05) than in the lower range (e.g., .04 〈 P 〈 .045). To assess variation in results introduced by our random sampling of a single P-value per abstract, we repeated the random sampling process 1000 times and pooled results across the samples. Analysis was done (divided into 10-year periods) to determine if p-hacking practices evolved over time. Results Our search of 136 journals identified 967,981 abstracts. Text mining identified 293,687 P-values, and a total of 4105 randomly sampled P-values were included in the p-hacking analysis. The number of journals and abstracts that were included in the analysis as a fraction and percentage of the total number was, respectively, 108/136 (80%) and 4105/967,981 (.4%). P-values did not concentrate just under .05; in fact, there were more P-values falling in the lower range (e.g., .04 〈 P 〈 .045) than falling just below .05 (e.g., .045 〈 P 〈 .05), indicating lack of evidence for p-hacking. Time trend analysis did not identify p-hacking in any of the five 10-year periods. Conclusion We did not identify evidence of p-hacking in abstracts published in over 100 imaging journals since 1972. These analyses cannot detect all forms of p-hacking, and other forms of bias may exist in imaging research such as publication bias and selective outcome reporting.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0846-5371
,
1488-2361
DOI:
10.1177/08465371221139418
Language:
English
Publisher:
SAGE Publications
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2068691-2
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