Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: among statisticians and methodologists, the statistical technique Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) has been highly debated for decades. The NHST method is being criticized for certain methodological limitations, and for structural misinterpretation by users. The critics often use opinion articles to create awareness for the problems associated with NHST or advocate alternatives like Bayesian statistics. To date, no attempt has been made to systematically synthesize the literature available on this topic. The only review of NHST literature available dates back to 2000, and used non-systematic methods for the process of searching, extracting, and synthesizing (Nickerson, 2000). Systematic review methods have so far mainly focused on ways to synthesize findings from empirical studies. In this review study, we will also address the methodological issues regarding the synthesis of opinion articles.
Objectives: we aim to shed light on the drawbacks of the NHST and to list possible alternatives for this method. In addition, we aim to explore the challenges faced when systematically synthesizing opinion literature and setting the agenda for methods development for the synthesis of opinion literature.
Methods: we systematically searched for opinion studies in the field of psychology from 2011 onwards using two databases. Our search yielded 59 opinion articles, which we selected for synthesis. We have developed an extraction sheet for these articles and will develop a method for appraising the quality and synthesis of the studies.
Results: we will present the preliminary findings of this review to provide a comprehensive overview of opinion literature on NHST. We will provide a narrative about the arguments for and against NHST, and the alternatives that are suggested for NHST. In addition, we will present the issues we encountered with regard to data extraction, quality appraisal and synthesis of the opinion articles.
Conclusion: we will discuss the potential and challenges associated with the synthesis of opinion literature, and call for further research and worked examples of this type of synthesis.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: we have involved several statisticians in limiting our search and coming up with keywords.
Objectives: we aim to shed light on the drawbacks of the NHST and to list possible alternatives for this method. In addition, we aim to explore the challenges faced when systematically synthesizing opinion literature and setting the agenda for methods development for the synthesis of opinion literature.
Methods: we systematically searched for opinion studies in the field of psychology from 2011 onwards using two databases. Our search yielded 59 opinion articles, which we selected for synthesis. We have developed an extraction sheet for these articles and will develop a method for appraising the quality and synthesis of the studies.
Results: we will present the preliminary findings of this review to provide a comprehensive overview of opinion literature on NHST. We will provide a narrative about the arguments for and against NHST, and the alternatives that are suggested for NHST. In addition, we will present the issues we encountered with regard to data extraction, quality appraisal and synthesis of the opinion articles.
Conclusion: we will discuss the potential and challenges associated with the synthesis of opinion literature, and call for further research and worked examples of this type of synthesis.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: we have involved several statisticians in limiting our search and coming up with keywords.