The DOI matches its Crossref record; 24 of the 24 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Stepwise Regression and Stepwise Discriminant Analysis Need Not Apply here: A Guidelines Editorial
Abstract
Stepwise methods are frequently employed in educational and psychological research, both to select useful subsets of variables and to evaluate the order of importance of variables. Three problems with stepwise applications are explored in some detail. First, computer packages use incorrect degrees of freedom in their stepwise computations, resulting in artifactually greater likelihood of obtaining spurious statistical significance. Second, stepwise methods do not correctly identify the best variable set of a given size, as illustrated by a concrete heuristic example. Third, stepwise methods tend to capitalize on sampling error and thus tend to yield results that are not replicable.
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“Selecting on statistical associations is a data-driven approach which may lead to non-replicable results [44].”
From Students under lockdown: Comparisons of students’ social networks and mental health before and during the COVID-19 crisis in Switzerland (2020) · cites this paper as [44]
Citations
Cites
Cohen, J. (1994) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.49.12.997 · Cited by 4,003
American Educational Research Journal, 1964-1968
Vesta, F. J. D., & Grinder, R. E. (1968) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.2307/1162008 · Cited by 2,606
An Inquiry concerning human understanding
Hume, D. (1955) · Cited by 1,774
Multiple regression as a general data-analytic system.
Cohen, J. (1968) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0026714 · Cited by 1,090
Applied Discriminant Analysis.
Hand, D. J., & Huberty, C. J. (1995) · Biometrics · doi:10.2307/2533021 · Cited by 990
The case against statistical significance testing
Carver, R. (1978) · Harvard Educational Review · doi:10.17763/haer.48.3.t490261645281841 · Cited by 931
Advances in Social Science Methodology
Thompson, B. (1994) · Cited by 426
Self-citationHeckler, C. E., & Huberty, C. J. (1995) · Technometrics · doi:10.2307/1269928 · Cited by 409
Maxwell, S. E., & Cliff, N. (1988) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.2307/2290163 · Cited by 407
Canonical correlation analysis: A general parametric significance-testing system.
Knapp, T. R. (1978) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.85.2.410 · Cited by 277
Evaluating Results Using Corrected and Uncorrected Effect Size Estimates
Snyder, P., & Lawson, S. (1993) · The Journal of Experimental Education · doi:10.1080/00220973.1993.10806594 · Cited by 265
The Importance of Structure Coefficients in Regression Research
Thompson, B., & Borrello, G. M. (1985) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/001316448504500202 · Cited by 222
Self-citationEducational and Psychological Measurement
&NA; (1953) · Nursing Research · doi:10.1097/00006199-195302000-00027 · Cited by 201
Hudson, W. D. (1969) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-349-15336-7 · Cited by 197
A Primer on the Logic and Use of Canonical Correlation Analysis.
Thompson, B. (1991) · Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development · Cited by 168
Self-citationThompson, B. (1994) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1994.tb00289.x · Cited by 129
Self-citationComputations for Variable Selection in Discriminant Analysis
McCabe, G. P. (1975) · Technometrics · doi:10.1080/00401706.1975.10489278 · Cited by 92
Advances in educational research : substantive findings, methodological developments
Thompson, B. (1991) · JAI Press eBooks · Cited by 61
Self-citationWhy Won't Stepwise Methods Die?
Thompson, B. (1989) · Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development · doi:10.1080/07481756.1989.12022899 · Cited by 61
Self-citationChildren's Beliefs About Sources of Health: A Reliability and Validity Study
Thompson, B., Butcher, A., & Berenson, G. S. (1987) · Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development · doi:10.1080/07481756.1987.12022853 · Cited by 44
Self-citationThompson, B. (1990) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/0013164490501003 · Cited by 43
Self-citationAn Epistemology of Practical Research
Strike, K. A. (1979) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x008001010 · Cited by 31
The Interpretation of Multiple Regression Via Overlapping Rings
Creager, J. A. (1969) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.2307/1162267 · Cited by 9
Comments: The Interpretation of Multiple Regression Via Overlapping Rings
Creager, J. A. (1969) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.3102/00028312006004706 · Cited by 5
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Craeger, J., 1969, American Educational Research Journal, 6, 706
- Thompson, B. (Ed.). (1993). Special issue on statistical significance testing, with comments from various journal editors. Journal of Experimental Education, 61(4).
- Thompson, B., 1994, Measurement Update, 4, 5
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Un sistema de clasificación de los diseños de investigación en psicología
Ato, M., López-García, J. J., & Benavente, A. (2013) · Anales de Psicología · doi:10.6018/analesps.29.3.178511 · Cited by 2,254
Babyak, M. A. (2004) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000127692.23278.a9 · Cited by 2,061
Elmer, T., Mepham, K., & Stadtfeld, C. (2020) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236337 · Cited by 1,658
“Selecting on statistical associations is a data-driven approach which may lead to non-replicable results [44].”
BackgroundLai, J., Zou, Y., Zhang, J., & Peres‐Neto, P. R. (2022) · Methods in Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13800 · Cited by 1,279
Thompson, B., & Daniel, L. G. (1996) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/0013164496056002001 · Cited by 919
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Thompson, B.
- Affiliations
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Thompson, Bruce
- Venue
- Educational and Psychological Measurement
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1995-08
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 525-534
- ISSN
- 0013-1644 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3888
- OpenAlex
- W2088223830
- Cited by
- 434
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 8.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Educational and Psychological Measurement (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Inference
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- stepwise regression, stepwise discriminant analysis, feature selection, degrees of freedom, sampling error, replicability, feature importance, statistical methodology critique
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