International Journal of Epidemiology 2003;32:699-702
© International Epidemiological Association 2003
Reprints and Reflections |
Commentary: The P-value, devalued
Department of Oncology, Division of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 1103, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. E-mail: sgoodman@jhmi.edu
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Of the many honorifics bestowed on the articles in this historical series, it is doubtful that any have had applied the best—funny. The rhetorical zest and smiling outrage that Joseph
Berkson brings to his puncturing of the quasi-religious precepts of traditional statistics in his classic article1 recalls for me a public debate I witnessed in the 1980s between a highly respected statistician and a surgeon clinical-trialist. It was a debate on issues related to the adjustment of P-values in clinical trials, and what I remember best was the entrance of the physician in full surgical regalia; green operating scrubs, face mask, shoe covers, the whole bit. Playing effectively the role of the ‘aw-shucks, I’m just a country doc who don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout statistics’ he parodied traditional statistical precepts so effectively, contrasting them unfavourably with common-sense judgements, that the statistician, however meritorious his rebuttal may have been,
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