"This excellent book is written by the dean replacing his predecessor Diederik Stapel, who had been unmasked as large scale data fabricator. The title of the book says it all: Klaas Sijtsma didn't waste the good crisis his university was in. The book contains an engaging mixture of the personal story of having to control the damage done by the Stapel case, Sijtsma's encounters with questionable research questions during his career in applied statistics and psychometrics, and a strong plea to improve research quality. That mix works well. I especially like the insightful explanations about why statistics is difficult for most researchers and how easily they're let astray by their intuition. It's also explained clearly why transparency about
the research methods used and the data obtained is essential for research to be trustworthy. Taking everything together the book is a convincing plea to engage in open methods and open data, and to involve methodologists and statisticians in research more intensively. Also leaders of research institutes can learn a lot from the book about how to make their organization less vulnerable to research fraud and methodological errors."
- Lex Bouter, Professor Emeritus of Methodology and Integrity, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
"Sijtsma's book is of interest to anybody interested in open science and to all methodologists. He points out problems and then provides concrete solutions. As a member of the book's target audience, I finished the book in a few sittings and highly recommend it."
- Eric-Jan Wagenmakers in
Chance, October 2024
"[This book] is well written and readable, but it is also statistical rather than journalistic, despite being an inside view of a major news event. I wholeheartedly agree with the practical recommendations the author makes, on research transparency, on statistical approaches, and on the importance of statistical education."
- Catherine Saunders in
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society, August 2024
