[Rd] default for 'signif.stars'

[Lenth, Russell V]

Dear R-Devel,

As I am sure many of you know, a special issue of The American Statistician just came out, and its theme is the [mis]use of P values and the many common ways in which they are abused. The lead editorial in that issue mentions the 2014 ASA guidelines on P values, and goes one step further, by now recommending that the words "statistically significant" and related simplistic interpretations no longer be used. There is much discussion of the problems with drawing "bright lines" concerning P values.

This is the position of a US society, but my sense is that the statistical community worldwide is pretty much on the same page. 

Meanwhile, functions such as 'print.summary.lm' and 'print.anova' have an argument 'signif.stars' that really does involve drawing bright lines when it is set to TRUE. And the default setting for the "show.signif.stars" option is TRUE. Isn't it time to at least make "show.signif.stars" default to FALSE? And, indeed, to consider deprecating those 'signif.stars' options altogether?

Thanks

Russ

Russell V. Lenth  -  Professor Emeritus
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science   
The University of Iowa  -  Iowa City, IA 52242  USA   
Voice (319)335-0712 (Dept. office)  -  FAX (319)335-3017