Everything Hertz

A new paper sparks a lively discussion on the need for reproducible science. The importance of registered reports and incentivizing change takes center stage. Concerns over copyediting quality and economic pressures in publishing are highlighted. The hosts dive into the challenges of double-blind study analysis and the ongoing replication crisis. They also critique reliance on metrics for hiring and promote open science practices. The conversation wraps up with humor, teasing future innovations and fostering a sense of community.

Dan and James have their very first guest! For this episode they're joined by Robin Kok (University of Southern Denmark) to talk e-health. They also cover a recent blog post that inadvertently highlighted questionable research practices in psychology. Some of the topics covered: The grad student who never said no Postdoc work/life balance Questionable research practices Torturing data (with rattan sticks) Using the GRIM test to assess data accuracy Unpaid internships Saying 'yes' to opportunities that come your way The Myers-Briggs test is rubbish What is e-health? Are e-health interventions efficacious? e-health intervention implementation issues The poor quality of psych intervention smartphone apps Using "Facebook Live" to broadcast conference presentations The future of e-health Links Robin's twitter account https://www.twitter.com/robinnkok "The grad student who never said no" blog post http://www.brianwansink.com/phd-types-only/the-grad-student-who-never-said-no The Buzzfeed quiz on 'Which Disney princess are you?' (James is Belle) https://www.buzzfeed.com/mccarricksean/which-disney-princes-are-you?utm_term=.riNJn5DbW#.ci9gL3Xq8 XKXD TornadoGuard comic https://xkcd.com/937/ The efficacy of e-health interventions http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wps.20151/abstract Wild West eHealth: Time to Hold our Horses? www.ehps.net/ehp/index.php/contents/article/download/765/pdf_44 Smartphone app interventions http://www.jmir.org/2013/11/e247/ Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.com/hertzpodcastSpecial Guest: Robin Kok.Support Everything Hertz

Dan and James discuss Zombie theories, which are scientific ideas that continue to live on in the absence of evidence. Why do these ideas persist and how do we kill them for good? Some of the topics covered: Why do some ideas live on? Zombie theories in heart rate variability research Reasons why zombie theories proliferate more in the social sciences Attractiveness and simplicity Theories become brands Oxytocin zombie theories The power of shaming Ideas are corrected more quickly in smaller fields James' new interest in Cow ECG People using science as a weapon to open up hip pockets How do we kill these zombies for good? Manual vs. automated PubMed comments What's the impact of paper retraction on future citations? How do you correct the scientific record? Links Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.com/hertzpodcastSupport Everything Hertz

Dan and James discuss a new population study that linked health anxiety data with future heart disease. Some of the topics covered: Web MD and health anxiety How would healthy anxiety contribute to heart disease? A summary of the study Ischemic heart disease = coronary artery disease Do people with healthy anxiety take better care of thier health? Don't be fooled by percentage increase of risk for something that's rare There are some things you can't just randomize The pros and cons of big data collection Links The paper http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/11/e012914.full Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.com/hertzpodcastSupport Everything Hertz

Dan and James discuss a recent study of over one million Swedish men that found that higher resting heart rate late adolescence was associated with an increased risk for subsequent psychiatric illness. Some of the topics covered: How did these authors get such an enormous dataset? The benefits of testing so many people What we liked about the study (hint: lots of things) Measuring cardiovascular efficiency using a cycle ergometer The pitfalls of self-reported physical activity How the media covered this study Contextual factors - does the testing environment induce anxiety? Co-morbidity in psychiatry What would James do with 200,000 ECGs strips? Links The paper http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2569454 The Daily Mail story http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3875062/Why-heartbeat-teenager-affect-later-life-Boys-high-blood-pressure-risk-mental-health-problems-adults.html?linkId=30382089 Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.comSupport Everything Hertz

Dan and James discuss authorship in the biomedical sciencesSupport Everything Hertz

Dan and James talk about how they learn new things. Some of the topics discussed: Internet memes Consolidating old ideas rather than learning new ones Why learn a new skill when you just get someone else to do it? A lesson of not having a good understanding statistical software... James and Dan butt heads about meta-analysis (again) Learning new things is interesting How did people learn things before the internet? How to follow things on Twitter without being on Twitter Links Bayes factor paper with 'primer' paper matrix https://alexanderetz.com/2016/02/07/understanding-bayes-how-to-become-a-bayesian-in-eight-easy-steps/ Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.com/hertzpodcastSupport Everything Hertz

Pre-registration, p-hacking, power, protocols. All these concepts are pretty mainstream in 2016 but hardly discussed 5 years ago. In this episode, James and Dan talk about these ideas and other developments in biomedical science. Some of the topics discussed: James loves blinded reviews, scihub Dan loves protocols, learning stats through social media, reproducible science Links The COMPARE initiative http://compare-trials.org "Give me the F-ing PDF" Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/give-me-the-f-ing-pdf/iekjpaipocoglamgpjoehfdemffdmami/related Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.com/hertzpodcastSupport Everything Hertz

Dan and James discuss complaints and grievances. Stay tuned for part 2 where things get positive. Some of the topics discussed: Conflicts of interest Criticism in psychology Why does there seem to be so much bad blood in psychology? Retracted papers: fraud or sloppiness? Authors not acknowledging your peer-review remarks The short-term nature of research The benefits of 'centers of excellence' Links The 'vibe of the thing' scene from 'The Castle' (Great Aussie film) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJuXIq7OazQ Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.comSupport Everything Hertz

When interpreting the magnitude of group differences using effect sizes, researchers often rely on Cohen's guidelines for small, medium, and large effects. However, Cohen originally proposed these guidelines as a fall back when the distribution of effect sizes was unknown. Despite the hundreds of available studies comparing heart rate variability (HRV), Cohen's guidelines are still used for interpretation. In this episode, Dan discusses his recent preprint describing an effect size distribution analysis on HRV studies. Some of the topics discussed: A summary of Dan's preprint What is an effect size? What can an effect size distribution tell us? How effect sizes can inform study planning How close are Cohen's guidelines to the distribution of HRV effect sizes? What samples sizes are appropriate? Pre-publication review vs. post-publication review Statcheck Links The preprint article http://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/08/31/072660 Statcheck https://mbnuijten.com/statcheck/ Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/everythinghertzpodcast/ Twitter account https://www.twitter.comSupport Everything Hertz