Home » Murray State professor co-creates web tool to check scientific papers for accuracy

Murray State professor co-creates web tool to check scientific papers for accuracy

Dr. Sean Rife
Dr. Sean Rife

Has been applied to more than 30,000 papers

MURRAY, Ky. (Oct. 12, 2016) — Dr. Sean Rife, assistant professor of psychology at Murray State University, has partnered with colleagues in the Netherlands to create a web application that scientists can use to check their papers for statistical errors.

The program, statcheck, has already been applied to more than 30,000 published papers and discovered that roughly 1 in 8 articles in the field of psychology contain one or more critical errors in statistical reporting. The application provides a “one-click” solution that allows researchers to easily screen their papers for statistical errors prior to submitting them for publication.

Since the web app was launched on Sept. 26, Rife estimates that it has been used to analyze more than 1,000 documents, although precise figures are not known due to publishing and privacy concerns.

“When writing a scientific paper, it’s easy to inadvertently make mistakes. It is our hope that statcheck’s web version proves to be a valuable tool that improves the accuracy of scientific papers,” said Rife.