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Advanced · 3 min

Account for many opportunities to find a result

Testing many hypotheses creates more opportunities for false alarms. If many outcomes are explored but only a striking one is reported, readers see an incomplete picture. Prespecify primary questions where appropriate, report the analyses performed, and use a suitable method to account for multiple testing. Exploratory findings can guide later confirmation.

Practice

Why is reporting only the smallest p-value from many tests misleading?