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Points of significance

Significance, P values and t-tests

Nature Methods volume 10, pages 1041–1042 (2013)Cite this article

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The P value reported by tests is a probabilistic significance, not a biological one.

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Figure 1: The mechanism of statistical testing.
Figure 2: Repeated independent observations are used to estimate the s.d. of the null distribution and derive a more robust P value.
Figure 3: The t and normal distributions.

References

  1. Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. Nat. Methods 10, 809–810 (2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Martin Krzywinski is a staff scientist at Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre.,

    Martin Krzywinski

  2. Naomi Altman is a Professor of Statistics at The Pennsylvania State University.,

    Naomi Altman

Authors
  1. Martin Krzywinski
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  2. Naomi Altman
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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Table 1

Worksheets illustrate calculations that support statements in the column or provide interactive versions of its figures. Please note that the workbook requires that macros be enabled. (XLSM 477 kb)

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Krzywinski, M., Altman, N. Significance, P values and t-tests. Nat Methods 10, 1041–1042 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2698

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