On Thursday, October 18, 2012 10:52:48 am DUMAS Philippe (UDS) wrote:
>
> Le Jeudi 18 Octobre 2012 19:16 CEST, "Bernhard Rupp (Hofkristallrat a.D.)"
> <[email protected]> a écrit:
>
> I had a look to this PNAS paper by Fang et al.
> I am a bit surprised by their interpretation of their Fig. 3:
> they claim that here exists a highly signficant correlation between
> Impact factor and number of retractations.
> Personnaly, I would have concluded to a complete lack of correlation...
> Should I retract this judgment?
Fang et al. claim that R^2 = 0.0866, which means that CC = 0.29.
While a correlation coefficient of less than 0.3 is not
"a complete lack of correlation", it's still rather weak.
The "highly significant" must be taken in a purely statistical sense.
That is, it doesn't mean "the measures are highly correlated", it
means "the evidence for non-zero correlation is very strong".
Ethan
> Philippe Dumas
>
> > Dear CCP4 followers,
> >
> > Maybe you are already aware of this interesting study in PNAS regarding the
> > prevalence of fraud vs. 'real' error in paper retractions:
> >
> > Fang FC, Steen RG and Casadevall A (2012) Misconduct accounts for the
> > majority of retracted scientific publications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
> > 109(42): 17028-33.
> >
> > http://www.pnas.org/content/109/42/17028.abstract
> >
> > There were also a few comments on related stuff such as fake peer review in
> > the Chronicle of Higher Education. As not all may
> > have access to that journal, I have put the 3 relevant pdf links on my web
> >
> > http://www.ruppweb.org/CHE_Misconduct_PNAS_Stuft_Oct_2012.pdf
> > http://www.ruppweb.org/CHE_DYI_reviews_Sept_30_2012.pdf
> > http://www.ruppweb.org/CHE_The-Great-Pretender_Oct_8_2012.pdf
> >
> >
> > Best regards, BR
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> > Bernhard Rupp
> > 001 (925) 209-7429
> > +43 (676) 571-0536
> > [email protected]
> > [email protected]
> > http://www.ruppweb.org/
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
--
Ethan A Merritt
Biomolecular Structure Center, K-428 Health Sciences Bldg
University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7742
