Dorothy Bishop
Had read Markus Englund's piece on copy-paste errors in Excel data https://www.sciencedetective.org/scientific-datasets-are-riddled-with-copy-paste-errors/ but hadn't realised it affected #microbiome research that had already attracted criticism for weak stats etc.
Covered here: https://www.thetransmitter.org/academia/data-duplications-flagged-in-highly-cited-gut-brain-studies/
Scientific datasets are riddled with copy-paste errors

Initial results from scanning through Excel files belonging to 600 published scientific papers.

Science Detective
4:45pmWeb
Show threadJohn Faithfull 🌍πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ ΏπŸ§‘βœŠπŸ»βœŠπŸΏ11h ago

@deevybee Eeek! I don't think I've done this, but I can see how this could easily happen.

I quite like retyping mineralogical analytical data by hand because it forces you to think about each point individually, and assess quality. But it does introduce the possibility of transcription errors.

But simple uncritical bulk ingestion of numbers from instruments has its own very definite problems..

This stuff is hard!

Show threadBoris Barbour9h ago

@deevybee

3k citations for something whose problems have been evident for years...