The highest form of research is that which finds a significant treatment effect in vivo. In my experience, though, It seems that small effect sizes are almost the rule in natural environments. Single variables might often account only for 3%-5% or less of observation: probably because there are so many variables operating as well as many of them being transient/saltatory/unmeasurable.
At the same time there is a trend in stats to move away from p-values to just saying (as dichotomy) "significant" "or not", and quoting a confidence interval.. Anyway, my question is one that I have asked before: are you able to draw conclusions from research based on such small effect sizes> an r of +0.08 that is significant. I have found alot of regulatory mechanisms operate with effect sizes that are this small: ex. there may be a feedback mechanism that is well established yet the effect size is only 0.08 any articles or books on this topic appreciated.. . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
