Scientists rise up against statistical significance

On top of this, the rigid focus on statistical significance encourages researchers to choose data and methods that yield statistical significance for some desired (or simply publishable) result, or that yield statistical non-significance for an undesired result, such as potential side effects of drugs — thereby invalidating conclusions. Again, we are not advocating a ban on P values, confidence intervals or other statistical measures — only that we should not treat them categorically. One reason to avoid such ‘dichotomania’ is that all statistics, including P values and confidence intervals, naturally vary from study to study, and often do so to a surprising degree.

Source: www.nature.com