April 2023
 

Detecting statistical reporting errors with the free online tool statcheck
 

Statcheck is a free online tool capable of automatically detecting errors in inferential statistics (e.g., t value, df, and p) in papers. To help reduce statistical errors in published articles, some psychology journals recommend or even require authors to scan their manuscripts using this tool to detect and then fix any statistical errors before submitting their manuscript for peer review.

A recent PsyArXiv preprint (not yet peer reviewed) supports the use of statcheck in the peer review process. Two journals that require its use, Psychological Science and the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, published fewer articles that contained statistical reporting errors after implementing statcheck, although some inconsistencies in statistical reporting did still occur and remain a topic for future study.

If you are interested in using statcheck to help detect any statistical reporting errors in your papers before submission, you can access this tool via a browser application or plug-in for Microsoft Word.