P-hacking incident violated integrity, Dutch body finds

Research integrity board’s report hints at tougher punishment for data manipulation in research

The manipulation of statistics to make results more visible—known as p-hacking—should be classed as a violation of scientific integrity, according to the LOWI, the Dutch board on research integrity.

A case at Leiden University, under investigation by the LOWI, has reignited a debate in the Netherlands on whether p-hacking should be considered research misconduct. In a report summing up progress on the investigation, the board said that the case involved the manipulation of statistical results by p-hacking and another practice known as optional stopping.