Constantinos Eleftheriou
@celefthe.bsky.social
Postdoctoral research fellow in Ian Duguid's lab at the SIDB, University of Edinburgh. I study visuomotor learning in Rett Syndrome 🏴🇨🇾
https://celefthe.com
https://celefthe.com
Finally, many thanks to Lauren Schenkman @thetransmitter.bsky.social for the interview and writeup; it was a blast :)
doi.org/10.53053/ISK...
doi.org/10.53053/ISK...
Sounding the alarm on pseudoreplication: Q&A with Constantinos Eleftheriou and Peter Kind
Most studies of neurological disorders in mice erroneously treat multiple samples from a single animal as independent replicates, according to a new analysis. But scientists and journals can take…
doi.org
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Finally, many thanks to Lauren Schenkman @thetransmitter.bsky.social for the interview and writeup; it was a blast :)
doi.org/10.53053/ISK...
doi.org/10.53053/ISK...
Pseudoreplication is not inevitable. Statistical tools such as linear mixed models allow us to take within- and between-animal variability into account. Hierarchical bootstraps are also another option (and a personal favourite!)
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Pseudoreplication is not inevitable. Statistical tools such as linear mixed models allow us to take within- and between-animal variability into account. Hierarchical bootstraps are also another option (and a personal favourite!)
We need to start treating our statistics with the same respect we treat our experimental techniques & design. Merely paying lip service to reporting guidelines is not enough, and journals/editors need to take responsibility for the statistical rigour of the work they publish.
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
We need to start treating our statistics with the same respect we treat our experimental techniques & design. Merely paying lip service to reporting guidelines is not enough, and journals/editors need to take responsibility for the statistical rigour of the work they publish.
...especially when the effect sizes appear very small, or the degree of pseudoreplication is very high (e.g. very large number of pseudoreplicates per animal).
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
...especially when the effect sizes appear very small, or the degree of pseudoreplication is very high (e.g. very large number of pseudoreplicates per animal).
Is it a problem? Well, yes if we care about reproducibility, since pseudoreplication increases the likelihood of false positive results! Of course, just because an article is pseudoreplicated it doesn't mean the results outright wrong - but caution is warranted...
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Is it a problem? Well, yes if we care about reproducibility, since pseudoreplication increases the likelihood of false positive results! Of course, just because an article is pseudoreplicated it doesn't mean the results outright wrong - but caution is warranted...
Stringent requirements and statistical reporting guidelines enforced by most journals since ~2012 have made no difference to the prevalence of pseudoreplication... but we did find that better reporting makes pseudoreplication easier to detect🤷
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Stringent requirements and statistical reporting guidelines enforced by most journals since ~2012 have made no difference to the prevalence of pseudoreplication... but we did find that better reporting makes pseudoreplication easier to detect🤷
We scored 645 articles published over the last 2 decades and found most were pseudoreplicated (~65% FXS and ~80% NDD articles), a trend which has persisted over the past 20 years.
June 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
We scored 645 articles published over the last 2 decades and found most were pseudoreplicated (~65% FXS and ~80% NDD articles), a trend which has persisted over the past 20 years.