Choice ofy-axis can mislead readers
File(s)Choice of y-axis can mislead readers.pdf (305.92 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Erdogan, Betul R
Vollert, Jan
Michel, Martin C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Using two examples from the non-scientific literature, we show how choice of unit of measure and scaling of y-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 start y-axis at 0 for ratio variables.
Date Issued
2020-06-25
Date Acceptance
2020-06-17
Citation
Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archives of Pharmacology, 2020, 393 (9), pp.1769-1772
ISSN
0028-1298
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
1769
End Page
1772
Journal / Book Title
Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archives of Pharmacology
Volume
393
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
©The Author(s) 2020. s This article is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the
article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted
by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to
obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of
this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Refere
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the
article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted
by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to
obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of
this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Refere
License URL
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000543328600002&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Perception
Bias
Reproducibility
Pre-specification
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-06-25