Actions Panel
Research, Rigor & Reproducibility: The Seven Deadly Selection Biases
Date and time
Location
TMEC 227
260 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02115Description
Speaker: Xiao-Li Meng, PhD, Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and the Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics, Harvard University
Description: This talk provides a statistical perspective on the roles the seven S’s (sins?) play in increasing the amount of irreproducible research, in medical and life sciences and beyond:
- Selections in hypotheses (e.g., subgroup analysis);
- Selections in data (e.g., deleting “outliers” or only using “complete cases”);
- Selections in methodologies (e.g., for goodness of fit);
- Selections in due diligence and debugging (e.g., triple checking only when the outcome seems undesirable);
- Selections in publication (e.g., only when p-value <0.05);
- Selections in reporting/summary (e.g., suppressing caveats);
- Selections in understanding and interpretation (e.g., our preference for deterministic, “common sense” interpretation).
The Big Data Paradox and Simpson’s Paradox will be used to demonstrate that the problem of irreproducible research is getting BIGGER with Big Data. A cocktail treatment approach together with a selfish/blowfish test is suggested to combat this problem. Refreshments will be provided.
Bio: Xiao-Li Meng is the Dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Whipple V. N. Jones Professor and former chair of Statistics at Harvard, an Honorary Professor of the University of Hong Kong, and a faculty affiliate at the Center of Health Statistics at the University of Chicago. He is well known for his depth and breadth in research, his innovation and passion in pedagogy, and his vision and effectiveness in administration, as well as for his engaging and entertaining style as a speaker and a writer.
Meng, a native of Shanghai, China, started his academic career at the age of 19, when he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Fudan University. After two years of teaching at China Textile University, he went back to Fudan and received a Diploma in Graduate Study in Mathematical Statistics in 1986. He then entered the Harvard Statistics Department, from which he was awarded his PhD in 1990. He was on the faculty of the University of Chicago from 1991 to 2001, before returning to Harvard as Professor of Statistics. He was appointed as the department chair in 2004, and the Whipple V. N. Jones Professor in 2007. He was appointed GSAS Dean effective August 15, 2012. Full bio here.