Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40413393›Full record

ArticleBMC medical research methodology2025

"Non-Markovian" and "directional" errors inhibit scientific self-correction and can lead fields of study astray: an illustration using gardening and obesity-related outcomes.

Jon Agley, Sarah E Deemer, David B Allison

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jon AgleyDepartment of Applied Health Science, School of Public Health - Bloomington, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Sarah E DeemerDepartment of Kinesiology, Health Promotion & Recreation, The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
David B AllisonDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA. allison@iu.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Herein we coin the terms non-Markovian error and biased Markovian error to describe categories of scientific errors for which general progress within a field of study may be unlikely to result in scientific self-correction. We provide examples of such errors and show their impact on studies about gardening and obesity.

Indexed as

GardeningObesityResearch DesignBiasHumansNon-Markovian errorsReproducibilityRigorScientific errorsScientific self-correctionTransparency

Identifiers

PMID40413393
PMCPMC12102974

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.