Choice ofy-axis can mislead readers

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Erdogan B. R., Vollert J., Michel M. C.

NAUNYN-SCHMIEDEBERGS ARCHIVES OF PHARMACOLOGY, cilt.393, sa.9, ss.1769-1772, 2020 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 393 Sayı: 9
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s00210-020-01926-x
  • Dergi Adı: NAUNYN-SCHMIEDEBERGS ARCHIVES OF PHARMACOLOGY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, BIOSIS, Biotechnology Research Abstracts, CAB Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts Core, Chimica, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Veterinary Science Database
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1769-1772
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Perception, Bias, Reproducibility, Pre-specification
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Using two examples from the non-scientific literature, we show how choice of unit of measure and scaling ofy-axis can caused a biased perception of data, a phenomenon we propose to call perception bias. We recommend to pre-specify unit of measure or how it will be determined, whether outcome variables will be shown as absolute or relative/normalized changes, and to typically starty-axis at 0 for ratio variables.