An investigation of the false discovery rate and the misinterpretation of P values

David Colquhoun

doi:10.1098/rsos.140216

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arXiv · 1407.5296

An investigation of the false discovery rate and the misinterpretation of P values

David Colquhoun

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Abstract

The following proposition is justified from several different points of view. If you use P = 0.05 to suggest that you have made a discovery, you will be wrong at least 30 percent of the time. If, as is often the case, experiments are under-powered, you will be wrong most of the time. It is concluded that if you wish to keep your false discovery rate below 5 percent, you need to use a 3-sigma rule, or to insist on P value below 0.001. And never use the word "significant".

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David Colquhoun. 2014-11-20. An investigation of the false discovery rate and the misinterpretation of P values. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140216

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