Comment by thyristan
2 days ago
That, in science, is called "lying".
Either you publish the range of results, the average plus standard deviation or average plus standard deviation of a subset with the exclusion criteria and exclusion range. Picking a result is a lie, plain and simple, and messiness is not an excuse.
Hence the crisis we have in science today.
As an aside, I'm working at a QC chem lab now, with results that have a direct impact on revenue calculations for clients. Therefore the reports go to accountants, therefore error bars dont't exist. We recently had a case where we reported 41.7 when the client expected 42.0 on a method that's +/- 1.5... They insisted we remeasure because our result was "impossible" The repeat gave 42.1, and the client was happy to be charged twice
See my comment too, you jump to lying, but as the GP said, chemistry is messy.
Any other science is messy as well.
Truck passing by on the nearby road? Oops, my physics experiment got shaken, results look messy. Lab animal caught a cold? Oops, genetics experiment now has messy data. Atmosphere is turbulent and some shitty starlink satellite passed by at the wrong moment? Oops, my stellar spectra are messy now. Imperfection in my test ingot? Oops, now my tensile strength measurements have messy data because a few ripped too early...
It is the nature of experimental science to deal with messiness. And dealing with it means being honest about it. You write it like it happened, find the problems in the messy parts of your data, exclude that and explain the why and how. Hand-picked results and just omitting data you find inconvenient is not science, its fraud.
When I am allowed to just pick one result I can show you a perpetuum mobile, cold fusion, superhuman intelligence in mice and tons of other newsworthy things...
Can I ask if you've done any actual commercial work in any science?
From the way you're talking, I'm going to guess you're an armchair commentator.
One person performing an unfamiliar experiment once is going to get lower yields and occasional failures.
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