The role of hypotheses in biomechanical research

Darrell Patrick ROWBOTTOM, R McNeill ALEXANDER

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether there is a discrepancy between stated and actual aims in biomechanical research, particularly with respect to hypothesis testing. We present an analysis of one hundred papers recently published in The Journal of Experimental Biology and Journal of Biomechanics, and examine the prevalence of papers which (a) have hypothesis testing as a stated aim, (b) contain hypothesis testing claims that appear to be purely presentational (i.e. which seem not to have influenced the actual study), and (c) have exploration as a stated aim. We found that whereas no papers had exploration as a stated aim, 58 per cent of papers had hypothesis testing as a stated aim. We had strong suspicions, at the bare minimum, that presentational hypotheses were present in 31 per cent of the papers in this latter group.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)247-262
Number of pages16
JournalScience in Context
Volume25
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2012

Bibliographical note

Thanks to Alexander Bird, Tom McLeish, Wilson Poon, and three anonymous referees for their comments.

Funding

Darrell Rowbottom's work on this paper was supported by the Templeton Foundation, as part of the 'Why Why?- Methodological and Philosophical Issues at the Physics-Biology Interface' project, and subsequently by the British Academy.

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