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The Role of Hypotheses in Biomechanical Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2012

Darrell P. Rowbottom  and
R. McNeill Alexander
Darrell P. Rowbottom
Affiliation:
Lingnan University E-mail: darrellrowbottom@ln.edu.hk
R. McNeill Alexander
Affiliation:
Leeds University E-mail: r.m.alexander@leeds.ac.uk
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Argument

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 247 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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