Should You Report Non-significant Results?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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It

is important to report the results as they are

. Yes, non-significant results are just as important as significant ones. If you are publishing a paper in the open literature, you should definitely report statistically insignificant results the same way you report statistical significant results.

What do you do if results are not statistically significant?

When the results of a study are not statistically significant,

a post hoc statistical power and sample size analysis

can sometimes demonstrate that the study was sensitive enough to detect an important clinical effect. However, the best method is to use power and sample size calculations during the planning of a study.

Can you publish non-significant results?


Non-significant results are difficult to publish in scientific journals

and, as a result, researchers often choose not to submit them for publication. This means that the evidence published in scientific journals is biased towards studies that find effects.

What are non-significant results?

Null or “statistically non-significant” results

tend to convey uncertainty

, despite having the potential to be equally informative. … When the probability does not meet that condition, the program result is null, i.e. there is no statistically significant difference between the treatment and control groups.

How do you report a statistically not significant result?

A more appropriate way to report non-significant results is

to report the observed differences (the effect size) along with the p-value and then carefully highlight which results were predicted to be different

.

Do you report effect size for non-significant results?


Effect sizes should always be reported

, as they allow a greater understanding of the data regardless of the sample size and also allow the results to be used in any future meta analyses. … So yes, it should always be reported, even when p >0.05 because a high p-value may simply be due to small sample size.

How do you report statistically significant results?

All statistical symbols (sample statistics) that are not Greek letters should be italicized (M, SD, t, p, etc.). When reporting a significant difference between two conditions,

indicate the direction of

this difference, i.e. which condition was more/less/higher/lower than the other condition(s).

What are significant results?

In principle, a statistically significant result (usually a difference) is

a result that’s not attributed to chance

. More technically, it means that if the Null Hypothesis is true (which means there really is no difference), there’s a low probability of getting a result that large or larger.

What does it mean when a variable is not statistically significant?

The

lack of significance

means lack of signal much the same as having gathered no data at all. The only value in the data at this point is combining it with new data so your sample size is large. But even then you will achieve significance only if the process you are studying actually is real.

What does non-significant mean?

:

not

significant: such as. a : insignificant. b : meaningless. c : having or yielding a value lying within limits between which variation is attributed to chance a nonsignificant statistical test.

How do you report non-significant regression results?

As for reporting non-significant values, you report them

in the same way as significant

. Predictor x was found to be significant (B =, SE=, p=). Predictor z was found to not be significant (B =, SE=, p=).

Where can I publish non-significant results?

  • Positively Negative (PLOS One)
  • The Missing Pieces: A Collection of Negative; Null and Inconclusive Results (PLOS One)
  • The All Results Journals.
  • ACS Omega (ACS Publications)
  • F1000Research.
  • PeerJ.
  • Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine.

What does a non-significant correlation mean?

If the P-value is bigger than the significance level (α =0.05), we fail to reject the null hypothesis. We conclude that the correlation

is not statically significant

. Or in other words “we conclude that there is not a significant linear correlation between x and y in the population”

What do you mean by there is no significant difference?

Instead, ‘

no statistically significant difference

‘ is often further abbreviated, making it even less representative of its true meaning (Figure 1). Also, the P value might be presented as >0.05 or as not significant, rather than its actual value, which further reduces the amount of information provided.

What is the difference between insignificant and non-significant?

As adjectives the difference between insignificant and nonsignificant. is that

insignificant is not significant

; not important, consequential, or having a noticeable effect while nonsignificant is (sciences) lacking statistical significance.

Do you report Cohen’s d for non-significant results?

Cohen’s d can help to explain

non-significant results

: if your study has a small sample size, the chances of finding a statistically significant difference between the groups is unlikely, unless the effect size is large.

Juan Martinez
Author
Juan Martinez
Juan Martinez is a journalism professor and experienced writer. With a passion for communication and education, Juan has taught students from all over the world. He is an expert in language and writing, and has written for various blogs and magazines.