english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2022 > • Down with the decline in vigilance! Mind your p's and q's

Spotlight: Archives

Every month, the subjects in Prescrire’s Spotlight.

2022 : 1 | 30 | 60

• Down with the decline in vigilance! Mind your p's and q's

In today's ever more skewed world, it's more important than ever to use every tool at one's disposal to determine if a result is significant. Or just plain old fishy.

APRIL FOOL'S! Yes, you guessed it. Prescrire's "News Flash" revealing the contents of a report from the "Universal Medicines Agency" dated 1 April 2022 and purporting to do away with the "p value" was in fact an April fool's prank.

A humorous nudge designed to remind readers not to let the dizzying speed of medical and other news get in the way of clear thinking and careful analysis. A reminder also that, when it comes to evaluating medical evidence, an emotional appeal to democratic or other "values" is no excuse to reliquish one's grasp on solid scientific concepts and methods, including the much-maligned "p value". And to resist the temptation to give too much significance to things that are not, scientifically, significant.

> Read Prescrire's 1 April 2022 "News Flash" (free, in French)

40 years of "fishy business" in April

The traditional April prank by Prescrire's editors serves as an annual "booster shot" to remind us all that, in the serious business of medical information, it pays to exercise critical judgement at all times.Poisson d'avril !

In April 1983 Prescrire's "special correspondent" revealed to enthralled readers the enormous interest of protryptophane in the treatment of acute senility... And ever since, the experiment has been repeated yearly in La revue Prescrire's April issue.

And on a few occasions, Prescrire's "April fish" (as the seasonal pranks are known in France) have even made it into the English edition, Prescrire International. One of these is included below, in this sampling of Prescrire's yearly "Poissons d'avril".

Greatest hits from Prescrire's annual "Poisson d'avril" prank


©Prescrire 1 April 2022

Share
Share on  Facebook Share on  Twitter


For more information:

"Exit la valeur p !"
(1 April 2022)
Free (in French)


Read more:

All the subjects in
Prescrire's Spotlight
Free >