The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth: A Pragmatic Guide to Assessing Empirical Evaluations

TitleThe Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth: A Pragmatic Guide to Assessing Empirical Evaluations
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsBlackburn, SM, Diwan A, Hauswirth M, Sweeney PF, Amaral J N, Brecht T, Bulej L\'ır, Click C, Eeckhout L, Fischmeister S, Frampton D, Hendren LJ, Hind M, Hosking AL, Jones RE, Kalibera T, Keynes N, Nystrom N, Zeller A
JournalACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst.
Volume38
Pagination15:1–15:20
Date Published10/2016
ISSN0164-0925
KeywordsExperimental evaluation, Experimentation, observation study
Abstract

An unsound claim can misdirect a field, encouraging the pursuit of unworthy ideas and the abandonment of promising ideas. An inadequate description of a claim can make it difficult to reason about the claim, for example, to determine whether the claim is sound. Many practitioners will acknowledge the threat of unsound claims or inadequate descriptions of claims to their field. We believe that this situation is exacerbated, and even encouraged, by the lack of a systematic approach to exploring, exposing, and addressing the source of unsound claims and poor exposition.

This article proposes a framework that identifies three sins of reasoning that lead to unsound claims and two sins of exposition that lead to poorly described claims and evaluations. Sins of exposition obfuscate the objective of determining whether or not a claim is sound, while sins of reasoning lead directly to unsound claims.

Our framework provides practitioners with a principled way of critiquing the integrity of their own work and the work of others. We hope that this will help individuals conduct better science and encourage a cultural shift in our research community to identify and promulgate sound claims.

URLhttp://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2983574
DOI10.1145/2983574
Refereed DesignationRefereed