Tag: infographic

A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science

A guide to spotting bad science. The guide presents twelve points to consider when evaluating scientific studies, particularly those pertaining to medical or health claims. 
1. Sensationalised headlines
2. Misinterpreted results
3. Conflicts of interest
4. Correlation and causation
5. Unsupported conclusions
6. Problems with sample size
7. Unrepresentative samples used
8. No control group used
9. No blind testing used
10. Selective reporting of data
11. Unreplicable results
12. Non-peer reviewed material
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A brief detour from chemistry, branching out into science in general today. This graphic looks at the different factors that can contribute towards ‘bad’ science – it was inspired by the research I carried out for the recent aluminium chlorohydrate graphic, where many articles linked the compound to causing breast cancer, referencing scientific research which drew questionable conclusions from their results.

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