A graduate student’s thesis adviser suggests removing outlier data points that make the intervention appear less effective, claiming this will “simplify” the analysis. What is the most ethical response?

Question

Answer

Delete the data points privately and proceed without documenting the change to avoid ethical concerns.

Answer

Include the outliers in the analysis but omit them from the final report to make results more favorable.

Answer

Explain that removing valid data without justification compromises research integrity and propose statistical methods that account for variability.

Answer

Follow the adviser’s suggestion to maintain a good relationship and speed up thesis completion.

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A graduate student’s thesis adviser suggests removing outlier data points that m...

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