Statistics, ethics, and research: An agenda for education and reform

This essay argues that the research community needs to pay more attention to the appropriate use of statistical methods in discussions of research ethics, and proposes some strategies for enhancing discussions of the ethical uses of statistics within investigational, educational, and organizational settings. The essay supports its position by 1) explaining why statistics plays such a key role in research integrity, 2) describing how some common misuses of statistics in research violate ethical standards pertaining to honesty and error avoidance, and 3) reviewing evidence which suggests that the misuse of statistics is more prevalent (and perhaps more significant) than research misconduct (narrowly defined as “fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism").