Proteus phenomenon

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The Proteus phenomenon is the tendency in science for early replications of a work to contradict the original findings, a consequence of publication bias. [1] It is akin to the winner's curse. [2]

The term was coined by John Ioannidis and Thomas A. Trikalinos in 2005 named after the Greek god Proteus who could rapidly change his appearance. [3] A 2013 paper argued that the phenomenon might be "desirable or even optimal" from a scientific standpoint. [4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pfeiffer, Thomas; Bertram, Lars; Ioannidis, John (2011). "Quantifying selective reporting and the Proteus phenomenon for multiple datasets with similar bias". PLoS ONE . 6 (3) e18362. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...618362P. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018362 . PMC   3066227 . PMID   21479240.
  2. ↑ Button, Katherine S.; et al. (2013). "Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience". Nature Reviews Neuroscience . 14 (5): 365–376. doi: 10.1038/nrn3475 . PMID   23571845.
  3. ↑ Ioannidis, JP; Trikalinos, TA (2005). "Early extreme contradictory estimates may appear in published research: The Proteus phenomenon in molecular genetics research and randomised trials". Journal of Clinical Epidemiology . 58 (6): 543–549. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2004.10.019. PMID   15878467.
  4. ↑ de Winter, Joost; Happee, Riender (20 June 2013). "Why Selective Publication of Statistically Significant Results Can Be Effective". PLOS ONE. 8 (6) e66463. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...866463D. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066463 . PMC   3688764 . PMID   23840479.


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