Star notation for p-value thresholds in statistical software |
No matter whether your field uses SAS, SPSS (now IBM), STATA, or another statistical software package, you're likely to have seen the star notation (this isn't about hotel ratings). One star (*) means p-value<0.05, two stars (**) mean p-value<0.01, and three stars (***) mean p-value<0.001.
According to the ASA statement, p-values are not the source of the problem, but rather their discretization. The ASA recommends:
"P-values, when used, would be reported as values, rather than inequalities (p = .0168, rather than p < 0.05). Indeed, we envision there being better recognition that measurement of the strength of evidence really is continuous, rather than discrete."This statement is a strong signal to the statistical software companies: continuing to use the star notation, even if your users are addicted to them, is in violation of the ASA recommendation. Will we be seeing any change soon?