Morey, Richard D.  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9220-3179 and Davis-Stober, Clintin
2026.
On the poor statistical properties of the p-curve meta-analytic procedure.
Journal of the American Statistical Association
121
(553)
, pp. 741-753.
10.1080/01621459.2025.2544397
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2025.2544397
Abstract
The P -curve (Simonsohn, Nelson, & Simmons, 2014; Simonsohn, Simmons, & Nelson, 2015) is a widely-used suite of meta-analytic tests advertised for detecting problems in sets of studies. They are based on nonparametric combinations of p values (e.g., Marden, 1985) across significant (p<.05) studies and are variously claimed to detect “evidential value”, “lack of evidential value”, and “left skew” in p values. We show that these tests do not have the properties ascribed to them. Moreover, they fail basic desiderata for tests, including admissibility and monotonicity. In light of these serious problems, we recommend against the use of the P -curve tests.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Psychology |
| Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
| ISSN: | 1537-274X |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 4 August 2025 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 24 July 2025 |
| Last Modified: | 06 May 2026 13:29 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180224 |
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