P-hacking: its implication for science and scientific research

Abstract

The globe has seen tremendous scientific inventions and technological advancements over the years. Inventions do not happen haphazardly but rather, it takes painstaking and rigorous application of scientific principles, bouncing ideas off one another, and the carrying out of experimental research studies. A number of indicators have been established to assess the precision of research findings. One of such notable indicators is the p-value, which denotes the statistical significance of a research finding. The manipulation and/or tweaking of research variables to obtain significant p-values have become an issue that have attracted considerable media interest and attention. This article serves to provide, in no uncertain terms, the researcher's perspective in relation to the manipulation using p-values, whilst reviewing related literature. The paper concludes with the implication this phenomenon has for science and scientific research.