Author Archives: Bob O'H

As I have some time free…

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Bob O'H

I was recently encouraged by a certain gentleman of this parish to return to blogging. Great, I thought, but when will I get the time? But over the weekend I was struck down by Lurgy-19, and as this is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Why p-values should be interpreted as more than p-values

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Bob O'H

Last week some of us published a paper trying to improve the way p-values are interpreted by suggesting this be done on a more continuous scale (here’s another link to the paper: hopefully one will go to a readable version). … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Psychology Journal Bans Almost All of Statistics

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Bob O'H

Amongst the big news last week (besides the octopus-squid battle, a dress, and a singer falling over whilst – presumably – sober) was the release of an editorial from the journal “Basic and Applied Social Psychology” (BASP) which announced that … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, Statistics | 9 Comments

The Breakthrough Prize Doesn’t

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Bob O'H

Yesterday the recipients of next year’s Breakthrough Prize were announced. We’re told that these are meant to “elevate scientists to rock-star status” and to “inspire the next generation of scientists”. If that’s the aim, then they are going to be … Continue reading →

Posted in The Society of Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Ghost un-authorships

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Bob O'H

I’m currently reading Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma, in which he documents all the naughty things done by the Pharma industry. One of the many infelicities he mentions is their habit of ghostwriting academic papers, and then asking an academic to … Continue reading →

Posted in Friday Fun, Science Publishing | 2 Comments

Detonation Aftermath

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Bob O'H

Sunday was a Big Day in Frankfurt. Next to the building where I work there is – or rather was – an ugly tower block, the AfE tower. We only move into our building last summer, and the whole time … Continue reading →

Posted in Aaaaaagh, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

This week, in Frankfurt

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Bob O'H

This morning the latest blog post on the Grauniad’s science pages was the annual complaint about crap news stories about ‘Blue Monday’. I’ve no idea if these stories have reached Germany (and there doesn’t seem to be anything about it … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | 2 Comments

Come and work with me in Frankfurt!

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Bob O'H

We’ve got an EXCITING(!) EXHILARATING(!!) ENTERTAINING(!!!) EXASPERATING(!V) opportunity for someone wanting to do a post-doc in Frankfurt, working in the Data and Modelling group here at BiK-F. I’ll be one of the people supervising the project. The official announcement is … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Science Blogging, Statistics | 4 Comments

The most pathetic journal spam yet

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Bob O'H

After the Bohannon fun, we’re all more aware of predatory publishers trying to get our money to publish any old crap. You would have thought they would have been aware of his, and at least made an attempt to look … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

How old is your method?

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Bob O'H

Over on the Methods in Ecology & Evolution blog, Sam (our Assistant Editor) has just put up a podcast she edited from interviews made by Barb Anderson at Intecol this year. She wandered the meeting with a sonic screwdriver asking … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Silliness | 4 Comments