Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review
Statistical analysis is crucial for research and the choice of analytical technique should take into account the specific distribution of data. Although the data obtained from health, educational, and social sciences research are often not normally distributed, there are very few studies detailing w...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01602/full |
| _version_ | 1828517540663394304 |
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| author | Roser Bono Roser Bono María J. Blanca Jaume Arnau Juana Gómez-Benito Juana Gómez-Benito |
| author_facet | Roser Bono Roser Bono María J. Blanca Jaume Arnau Juana Gómez-Benito Juana Gómez-Benito |
| author_sort | Roser Bono |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Statistical analysis is crucial for research and the choice of analytical technique should take into account the specific distribution of data. Although the data obtained from health, educational, and social sciences research are often not normally distributed, there are very few studies detailing which distributions are most likely to represent data in these disciplines. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the frequency of appearance of the most common non-normal distributions in the health, educational, and social sciences. The search was carried out in the Web of Science database, from which we retrieved the abstracts of papers published between 2010 and 2015. The selection was made on the basis of the title and the abstract, and was performed independently by two reviewers. The inter-rater reliability for article selection was high (Cohen’s kappa = 0.84), and agreement regarding the type of distribution reached 96.5%. A total of 262 abstracts were included in the final review. The distribution of the response variable was reported in 231 of these abstracts, while in the remaining 31 it was merely stated that the distribution was non-normal. In terms of their frequency of appearance, the most-common non-normal distributions can be ranked in descending order as follows: gamma, negative binomial, multinomial, binomial, lognormal, and exponential. In addition to identifying the distributions most commonly used in empirical studies these results will help researchers to decide which distributions should be included in simulation studies examining statistical procedures. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T18:42:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dce4d3e8b47e421399ba9a19dfb2aa4a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T18:42:53Z |
| publishDate | 2017-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-dce4d3e8b47e421399ba9a19dfb2aa4a2022-12-22T00:54:34ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782017-09-01810.3389/fpsyg.2017.01602267072Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic ReviewRoser Bono0Roser Bono1María J. Blanca2Jaume Arnau3Juana Gómez-Benito4Juana Gómez-Benito5Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, SpainInstitute of Neurosciences, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, SpainPsychobiology and Behavioral Sciences Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, University of MálagaMálaga, SpainSocial Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, SpainSocial Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, SpainInstitute of Neurosciences, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, SpainStatistical analysis is crucial for research and the choice of analytical technique should take into account the specific distribution of data. Although the data obtained from health, educational, and social sciences research are often not normally distributed, there are very few studies detailing which distributions are most likely to represent data in these disciplines. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the frequency of appearance of the most common non-normal distributions in the health, educational, and social sciences. The search was carried out in the Web of Science database, from which we retrieved the abstracts of papers published between 2010 and 2015. The selection was made on the basis of the title and the abstract, and was performed independently by two reviewers. The inter-rater reliability for article selection was high (Cohen’s kappa = 0.84), and agreement regarding the type of distribution reached 96.5%. A total of 262 abstracts were included in the final review. The distribution of the response variable was reported in 231 of these abstracts, while in the remaining 31 it was merely stated that the distribution was non-normal. In terms of their frequency of appearance, the most-common non-normal distributions can be ranked in descending order as follows: gamma, negative binomial, multinomial, binomial, lognormal, and exponential. In addition to identifying the distributions most commonly used in empirical studies these results will help researchers to decide which distributions should be included in simulation studies examining statistical procedures.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01602/fullnon-normal distributionsgamma distributionnegative binomial distributionmultinomial distributionbinomial distributionlognormal distribution |
| spellingShingle | Roser Bono Roser Bono María J. Blanca Jaume Arnau Juana Gómez-Benito Juana Gómez-Benito Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review Frontiers in Psychology non-normal distributions gamma distribution negative binomial distribution multinomial distribution binomial distribution lognormal distribution |
| title | Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review |
| title_full | Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review |
| title_fullStr | Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review |
| title_short | Non-normal Distributions Commonly Used in Health, Education, and Social Sciences: A Systematic Review |
| title_sort | non normal distributions commonly used in health education and social sciences a systematic review |
| topic | non-normal distributions gamma distribution negative binomial distribution multinomial distribution binomial distribution lognormal distribution |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01602/full |
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