Slides from my talk at the annual meeting of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) in Gainesville, Florida on 2 November 2013

1. Hilda Bastian @hildabast
NASW Sciencewriters 2013, Florida 2nd Nov
http://www.slideshare.net/HildaBastian/
(Link listing on last slide)
Statistically Funny blogspot
Absolutely Maybe
at Scientific American
Click on image
Click on cartoon for link to post

2. See also: Who’s saying it?
Academic spin
(click thumbnail)
Think through the context of what happened, the methods of
collection and method of analysis before analyzing the data

3. Always think about
confidence intervals/margins
of error, matching use of
numbers & language to data
certainty (47.23% or just less
than half?)
See also: Standard
deviations (click
thumbnail)
Click on cartoon for link to post

4. See also: Alleged effects
include… (click thumbnail)
Click on cartoon for link to post
The strength & quality of data vary within a study. And always lo
for all outcomes (especially adverse ones), not just the ones
researchers point you to.

5. Click on cartoon
for link to post

6. See also: He said, then she
said… (click thumbnail)
Click on cartoon for link to post

7. The biggest bias we have to
deal with is our own.
Click on cartoon
for link to post

8. Link listing
http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/absolutely-maybe
Promising = overhyped + under-tested:
http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2012/06/promising-over-hyped-under-tested.html
Academic spin: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/absolutely-maybe/2013/09/09/academic-spinhow-to-dodge-weave-past-research-exaggeration/
You will meet too much false precision: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/02/you-willmeet-too-much-false-precision.html
Standard deviations: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/04/dont-worry-its-just-standarddeviation.html
Statistical significance: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/03/nervously-approachingsignificance.html
Alleged effects include…: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/07/alleged-effects-includehowling.html
Studies of cave paintings have shown..: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/06/studies-ofcave-paintings-have-shown.html
Studies in isolation – “Look Ma, straight A’s!”: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/04/lookma-straight-as.html
He said, then she said…: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2013/05/he-said-she-said-then-theysaid.html
Begging hopefully for less bias: http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/2012/06/begging-hopefullyfor-less-bias.html