On the use of receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to determine the most appropriate p value significance threshold

3Citations
Citations of this article
6Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Background: p value is the most common statistic reported in scientific research articles. Choosing the conventional threshold of 0.05 commonly used for the p value in research articles, is unfounded. Many researchers have tried to provide a reasonable threshold for the p value; some proposed a lower threshold, eg, 0.005. However, none of the proposals has gained universal acceptance. Using the analogy between the diagnostic tests with continuous results and statistical inference tests of hypothesis, I wish to present a method to calculate the most appropriate p value significance threshold using the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Results: As with diagnostic tests where the most appropriate cut-off values are different depending on the situation, there is no unique cut-off for the p significance threshold. Unlike the previous proposals, which mostly suggest lowering the threshold to a fixed value (eg, from 0.05 to 0.005), the most appropriate p significance threshold proposed here, in most instances, is much less than the conventional cut-off of 0.05 and varies from study to study and from statistical test to test, even within a single study. The proposed method provides the minimum weighted sum of type I and type II errors. Conclusions: Given the perplexity involved in using the frequentist statistics in a correct way (dealing with different p significance thresholds, even in a single study), it seems that the p value is no longer a proper statistic to be used in our research; it should be replaced by alternative methods, eg, Bayesian methods.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Habibzadeh, F. (2024). On the use of receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to determine the most appropriate p value significance threshold. Journal of Translational Medicine, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-023-04827-8

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free