P values are not transferable

Of the many challenges I encounter in communicating statistical concepts to collaborators, a common one is that p-values are seen as “transferable.” Here is a simple example to illustrate what I mean. Consider the following table, where the rows are sex (Male and Female) and the columns are smoking status (Current, Former, Never). We are…

Another improvement in reporting statistics in science

To add a little more to this post, I’ve read several papers where the authors add some details regarding the statistical methods/tests used with the results rather than just reporting a p-value. I think this approach really adds clarity. Here is an example. First, what I see as a typical approach: We found that the…