Has COVID-19 been the making of Open Science?

One outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic has been to put discussions about open research methods and practices, such as preprints, into the mainstream. Drawing on an recent analysis of the extent to which Open Science principles have been adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lonni Besançon, Corentin Segalas, Clémence Leyrat, argue that while the pandemic has accelerated certain forms of Open Science, much work remains to be done to ensure that these principles are engaged with optimally

Can visualization alleviate dichotomous thinking Effects of visual representations on the cliff effect

Common reporting styles for statistical results in scientific articles, such as \pvalues\ and confidence intervals (CI), have been reported to be prone to dichotomous interpretations, especially with respect to the null hypothesis significance testing framework. For example when the p-value is small enough or the CIs of the mean effects of a studied drug and a placebo are not overlapping, scientists tend to claim significant differences while often disregarding the magnitudes and absolute differences in the effect sizes. This type of reasoning has been shown to be potentially harmful to science. Techniques relying on the visual estimation of the strength of evidence have been recommended to reduce such dichotomous interpretations but their effectiveness has also been challenged. We ran two experiments on researchers with expertise in statistical analysis to compare several alternative representations of confidence intervals and used Bayesian multilevel models to estimate the effects of the representation styles on differences in researchers' subjective confidence in the results. We also asked the respondents' opinions and preferences in representation styles. Our results suggest that adding visual information to classic CI representation can decrease the tendency towards dichotomous interpretations measured as the cliff effect: the sudden drop in confidence around p-value 0.05 compared with classic CI visualization and textual representation of the CI with p-values. All data and analyses are publicly available at https://github.com/helske/statvis.</p

Preparing for Perceptual Studies: Position and Orientation of Wrist-worn Smartwatches for Reading Tasks

International audienceDespite the increasing demand for data visualization on mobile devices with small displays, few guidelines exist for designing visualizations for this form factor. To conduct perceptual studies with smartwatches under realistic conditions , we first need to know how to position these devices in front of a viewer. We report the results of a study, in which we investigate how people hold their smartwatches to read information. This is the first in a series of studies we are conducting to understand the perception of visualizations on smartwatches. Our study results show that people hold their watches at a distance of 28 cm in front of them, at a pitch angle of ~50 degrees, and at an angle of ~10 degrees from the line of sight

The State of the Art of Spatial Interfaces for 3D Visualization

International audienceWe survey the state of the art of spatial interfaces for 3D visualization. Interaction techniques are crucial to data visualization processes and the visualization research community has been calling for more research on interaction for years. Yet, research papers focusing on interaction techniques, in particular for 3D visualization purposes, are not always published in visualization venues, sometimes making it challenging to synthesize the latest interaction and visualization results. We therefore introduce a taxonomy of interaction technique for 3D visualization. The taxonomy is organized along two axes: the primary source of input on the one hand and the visualization task they support on the other hand. Surveying the state of the art allows us to highlight specific challenges and missed opportunities for research in 3D visualization. In particular, we call for additional research in: (1) controlling 3D visualization widgets to help scientists better understand their data, (2) 3D interaction techniques for dissemination, which are under-explored yet show great promise for helping museum and science centers in their mission to share recent knowledge, and (3) developing new measures that move beyond traditional time and errors metrics for evaluating visualizations that include spatial interaction

Open Science Saves Lives: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the last decade Open Science principles, such as Open Access, study preregistration, use of preprints, making available data and code, and open peer review, have been successfully advocated for and are being slowly adopted in many different research communities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic many publishers and researchers have sped up their adoption of some of these Open Science practices, sometimes embracing them fully and sometimes partially or in a sub-optimal manner. In this article, we express concerns about the violation of some of the Open Science principles and its potential impact on the quality of research output. We provide evidence of the misuses of these principles at different stages of the scientific process. We call for a wider adoption of Open Science practices in the hope that this work will encourage a broader endorsement of Open Science principles and serve as a reminder that science should always be a rigorous process, reliable and transparent, especially in the context of a pandemic where research findings are being translated into practice even more rapidly

The Continued Prevalence of Dichotomous Inferences at CHI

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La Différence Significative entre Valeurs p et Intervalles de Confiance

Alt.IHMInternational audienceIn addition to the wrong interpretations it often causes, binary significance testing tends to generate a false impression of confidence in scientific publications. Estimation techniques offer more information and better lend themselves to nuanced interpretations. We discuss the limits of binary significance testing and suggest practical guidelines on how to use estimation techniques in scientific publications, from paper writing to presentation.En plus des mauvaises interprétations dont ils sont sou-vent à l'origine, les tests d'hypothèse apportent souvent une fausse assurance sur les résultats des communications scientifiques. Les techniques d'estimation fournissent plus d'information et se prêtent mieux à des interpréta-tions nuancées. Nous discutons les limitations des tests d'hypothèse, puis offrons des recommandations pratiques sur l'utilisation des techniques d'estimation dans les communications scientifiques, de l'article à la présentation

Pressure-Based Gain Factor Control for Mobile 3D Interaction using Locally-Coupled Devices

International audienceWe present the design and evaluation of pressure-based interactive control of 3D navigation precision. Specifically, we examine the control of gain factors in tangible 3D interactions using locally-coupled mobile devices. By focusing on pressure as a separate input channel we can adjust gain factors independently from other input modalities used in 3D navigation, in particular for the exploration of 3D visualizations. We present two experiments. First, we determined that people strongly preferred higher pressures to be mapped to higher gain factors. Using this mapping, we compared pressure with rate control, velocity control, and slider-based control in a second study. Our results show that pressure-based gain control allows people to be more precise in the same amount of time compared to established input modalities. Pressure-based control was also clearly preferred by our participants. In summary, we demonstrate that pressure facilitates effective and efficient precision control for mobile 3D navigation