Flaws in a research paper (created 2000-01-27).

Dear Professor Mean, A small group I've been teaching has gotten extremely interested in how to decide when there are too many flaws in a paper which would completely invalidate (and circular file) it.

Gee, how many bugs do you have to find in a software program before you decide to uninstall it?

There is no obvious answer to either question, of course, but here are a few things to think about.

Further reading

• Biases in the interpretation and use of research results.
  MacCoun, R. Annu Rev Psychol (1998), 49: 259-87.

This webpage was originally published at the StATS website, which is currently unavailable. There is a dispute about the ownership of these pages, so I am only able to include a brief excerpt from this page.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. This page was written by Steve Simon and was last modified on 2010-04-01. Need more information? I have a page with general help resources. You can also browse for pages similar to this one at Category: Critical appraisal.