Categories
Nevin Manimala Statistics

Beware of counter-intuitive levels of false discoveries in datasets with strong intra-correlations

Genome Biol. 2025 Aug 18;26(1):249. doi: 10.1186/s13059-025-03734-z.

ABSTRACT

The false discovery rate (FDR) controlling method by Benjamini and Hochberg (BH) is a popular choice in the omics fields. Here, we demonstrate that in datasets with a large degree of dependencies between features, FDR correction methods like BH can sometimes counter-intuitively report very high numbers of false positives, potentially misleading researchers. We call the attention of researchers to use suited multiple testing strategies and approaches like synthetic null data (negative control) to identify and minimize caveats related to false discoveries, as in the cases where false findings do occur, they may be numerous.

PMID:40826107 | DOI:10.1186/s13059-025-03734-z

By Nevin Manimala

Portfolio Website for Nevin Manimala