MEPX
Chapter 10 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What statistics is for
  2. 2Averages
  3. 3Spread
  4. 4Distributions
  5. 5Sampling
  6. 6Confidence and error
  7. 7Testing a claim
  8. 8Relationships between variables
  9. 9How statistics mislead
  10. 10Doing it well

Chapter 10 of 10

Doing it well

Habits that keep you honest.

Before collecting

Decide what you will measure and how you will analyse it before you see the data. Choosing the analysis afterwards is how noise becomes a finding.

  • Pre-registering an analysis is the formal version of this habit.
  • Keep the raw data and the steps separate and repeatable.

Communicating

Show the distribution, not just the average. State the uncertainty. Name what the data cannot tell you, because the reader will otherwise assume it can.